GIFT    OF 
JANE  KoSATHER 


LIFE  OF 
WALTER    QUINTIN   GRESHAM 

VOLUME   I 


WALTER   Q.   GRESHAM 
As  a  Law  Student,  Twenty  Years  of  Age 


LIFE   OF 

Walter  Quin  tin  Gresham 

1832-1895 


By 
MATILDA   GRESHAM 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
WITH  PORTRAITS 

VOLUME  I 


'••-<-       •  < 


CHICAGO 

RAND   McNALLY  &   COMPANY 

1919 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
Otto  Gresham 


1 


j^ 


Ukss"bV.RAiD  MCNally*&  Company 


INTRODUCTORY 

LORD  MACAULAY,  in  one  of  his  essays,  said  that  many 
of  the  English  statesmen  of  his  own  and  of  earlier  times 
were  wanting  in  practical  administrative  ability  by  reason  of1 
their  logistic  powers, — their  ability  to  refine  and  distinguish. 
Their  very  talents  hampered  them  and  their  followers  in  reaching 
a  conclusion,  especially  the  right  one,  to  which  their  less  gifted 
and  learned,  but  practical  and  clear  headed,  associates  readily 
turned.2  Of  Macaulay's  own  treatment  of  Warren  Hastings  and 
Judge  Impey,  Judge  Stephens  said:  "I  think  Macaulay  made 
use  of  the  ambiguous  expressions  because  he  was  afraid  of  being 
definite  for  fear  of  being  wrong." 

The  career  of  Walter  Quintin  Gresham  was  before  all  else 
that  of  a  lawyer  and  judge.  Definiteness  he  insisted  on — def- 
initeness  of  fact,  of  statement,  of  decision.  That  definiteness  in 
affairs  of  State  brought  him  criticism  that  he  enjoyed — he  was  no 
diplomat.  In  this  presentation  of  his  life,  therefore,  the  aim  has 
been  to  be  specific,  and  to  make  no  statement  which  could  not 
be  corroborated  by  the  evidence. 

The  marshalling  of  the  facts  has  been  my  part  of  the  work. 
I  have  taken  the  evidence,  have  sifted  it,  and  have  presented  it, 
just  as  I  should  prepare  a  brief  for  the  court.  But  the  facts 
themselves,  and  the  deductions  and  conclusions,  have  come  from 
the  unclouded  memory  and  clear  mind  of  my  mother,  Matilda 
Gresham,  the  best  informed  witness  obtainable  and,  I  submit, 
competent.  We  have  had  to  take  into  account  the  Editors  and 
Censors,  and  we  have  bowed  to  their  will  and  their  judgment  in 
some  things  where  perhaps  they  were  right  and  perhaps  they 
were  wrong.  It  has  been  hard  to  convince  the  Editors  and  the 
Censors  that  the  woman  was  telling  the  story,  and  that  her  own 
life  experiences  and  environments  and  "prejudices"  fitted  her 
for  the  task. 

That  needle-work,  all  kinds  of  it  —  a  recital  of  which  the  Cen- 
sor struck  out  of  the  text — that  she  was  compelled  to  do  as  a  part 
of  her  childhood  education,  and  her  practical  knowledge  of  the 

1  See  pages  632  and  641.  2  See  page  800. 

V 

437829 


VI  INTRODUCTORY 

sewing-machine,  qualified  her  to  assist  the  judges  with  their 
models  in  deciding  a  question  arising  under  the  patent  laws. 
Her  experiences  on  the  Mississippi  River  in  1863  and  1864,  as  a 
passenger  on  steamboats  loaded  with  ammunition,  gave  her  a 
different  view  of  the  warning  of  the  German  Embassy  of  April 
22,  191 5,  published  in  fifty  American  newspapers,  than  that  of 
Lady  Mackworth,  the  English  Suffragist  who  sailed  on  and  lost 
her  life  in  the  sinking  of  the  ill-fated  Lusitania.  "Tommy-rot!" 
was  her  ladyship's  comment.  She  didn't  believe  they  could  do 
it.     Neither  did  the  statesmen. 

By  taking  the  lawyer's  last  fair  chance  the  Lusitania  could 
have  been  saved.  As  she  approached  the  English  Coast — whether 
or  not  under  reduced  speed,  as  it  is  said  she  crossed  the  Atlantic,  she 
should  have  been  convoyed.  "That  duty"  to  use  a  judicial  phrase 
"was  measured  and  dictated  by  the  Exigencies,"  the  possibilities  of 
the  occasion.  And  this,  too,  assuming  we  had  no  statute  prohibiting 
the  clearing  of  vessels,  in  time  of  war,  carrying  both  passengers 
and  ammunition — non-explosive  ammunition  if  you  please. 

Not  in  any  sense  by  way  of  justification  do  we  advert  to  this 
astounding  act  of  cruelty,  but  to  illustrate  further  the  workings 
of  the  mechanical  mind  or  the  mechanical  instinct,  the  highest 
form,  perhaps,  of  intelligence,  and  the  necessity  for  it  in  the 
practical  administration  of  governmental  affairs.  Adopting  one 
of  Walter  Q.  Gresham's  expressions,  before  the  model  is  made 
there  must  be  the  conception,  the  vision.  Quoting  one  of  the 
most  reverent  and  devout,  revelations  and  not  inventions  have 
been  some  of  the  conceptions — beyond  the  imagination  of  man, 
of  the  immature,  of  the  low  born  and  of  the  ignorant — which 
have  gone  into  machinery  and  made  for  the  benefit  of  the  race. 
George  M.  Pullman  was  not  an  educated  man,  but  he  saw  at  a 
glance  what  many  a  graduate  of  the  best  scientific  schools  of  this 
country  and  Europe  and  those  skilled  in  the  management  of  rail- 
roads could  not  see,  what  the  mechanic,  Sessions,  as  set  forth  in 
Chapter  XXXIII  of  this  work,  could  do.  That  chapter  and  the 
preceding  judicial  chapters  illustrate  how  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
helped  as  a  judicial  officer  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  patent 
law  which  require  that  the  credit  of  the  invention  shall  go  to  the 
man  or  woman  who  conceives  or  imagines  it,  however  much 
material  advantage  the  law  allows  to  accrue  to  the  man  who 


INTRODUCTORY  vii 

may  aid  in  the  practical  adoption  of  the  new  idea,  and  the  folly 
if  not  the  danger  of  the  material  man  attempting  to  assume  the 
role  of  an  inventor.  It  will  also  appear  that  the  judicial  mind  was 
concerned,  although  adhering  to  the  rule  that  if  property  rights 
were  the  basis  of  our  civilization  what  would  be  the  ultimate  effect 
of  the  labor-saving  machine  in  domestic  and  international  affairs  ? 

In  view  of  the  letters  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  as  set  out  in 
the  Natchez  chapters  in  this  work,  it  will  not  do  to  say  that 
passenger  vessels  without  previous  warnings  were  never  fired  on 
prior  to  19 15.  But  construing  the  statute  as  only  prohibiting 
the  carrying  of  passengers  on  vessels  loaded  with  ammunition 
that  might  explode,  and  conceding  that  this  construction,  as  it 
is  claimed  by  universal  acquiescence  for  a  long  period  of  years,  was 
the  correct  construction  of  the  statute,  we  want  to  submit  with 
all  due  deference  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  was  enough  of  an  executive,  and  had  enough  of  a 
nose  for  news,1  to  have  taken  notice  of  a  threat,  even  through  a 
newspaper  advertisement,  to  sink  a  passenger  vessel  because 
it  was  carrying  ammunition.  To  be  specific,  Theodore  Roose- 
velt said,  after  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania,  that  had  he 
been  President  he  would  have  met  the  threat  to  sink  with  a 
declaration  of  war,  but  as  a  newspaper  man  he  permitted  the 
threat  to  pass  unnoticed,  and  Colonel  George  Harvey  was  like- 
wise silent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  no  such  universal 
acquiescence  in  the  practical  construction  of  the  statute  as  to 
give  it  the  same  effect  as  if  written  so  as  to  permit  passengers 
and  non-explosives  on  the  same  vessel,  for  William  Jennings 
Bryan,  as  Secretary  of  State,  opposed  that  construction. 

Walter  Q.  Gresham  would  obey  the  law  in  good  faith,  even 
though  his  conscience  did  not  approve  it,  as  is  evidenced  by  his 
attitude  toward  the  Fugitive  Slave  Provision  of  the  National 
Constitution,  and  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850,  to  give  it 
effect.  With  him,  while  the  war  legislated,  but  not  exactly  as 
he  would  have  written  it,  he  did  not  as  a  judge  enter  on  con- 
structions that  brought  embarrassment  to  other  judges,  the 
judicial  recall,  for  instance,  and  then  the  declaration  that  the  war 
amendments  were  self  executory.  Written  in  blood,  that  was 
the  only  sane  view  for  a  court  to  take.     Part  of  that  legislation 

1  See  page  641. 


viii  INTRODUCTORY 

prohibited  passengers  on  ships  or  boats  carrying  ammunition. 
The  primary  object  was  to  remove  the  temptation  that  ammu- 
nition on  those  vessels  gave  to  an  enemy  to  destroy  them. 

Opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  Imperialism,  the  acquisition  of 

possessions  beyond  the  seas,  not  only  as  contrary  to  the  principles 

J        and  traditions  of  the  Republic    but  because  it  involved  large 

armaments,  once  entered  on,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  said  it  could 

and  should  be  maintained. 

History  shows  that  dispensing  statutes  and  constitutions 
have  been  costly  to  rulers,  statesmen  and  people.  As  a  young 
lawyer,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  realized  that  the  most  potent  argu- 
ment for  secession  was  Wendell  Phillips'  statement:  "Seward  will 
swear  to  support  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  but  will  not 
keep  his  oath."  In  his  mature  years  he  concluded  that  the  most 
potent  argument  for  anarchy,  what  we  now  call  Bolshevism,  was 
the  disposition  of  men  in  official  position  in  this  country,  under 
the  guise  of  construing  constitutions,  to  avoid  their  constitutional 
obligations.  Live  up  to  the  traditions  and  beliefs  and  compro- 
mises if  you  please,  of  the  fathers  or  the  Republic  will  go  the  route 
of  the  Roman  Republic.  He  believed  that  "that  instinct  of  reason 
that  was  common  to  the  masses"  no  statesman  or  politician  could 
long  impose  on.  Not  by  way  of  criticism  of  the  present  leader 
of  Democracy,  was  any  of  the  text  of  these  two  volumes  written. 
All  of  it  was  prepared  even  before  Mr.  Wilson  became  President. 
I  voted  for  him  in  1 9 1 6 .  It  has  taken  a  long  time  to  get  by  the  critics 
and  the  censors.  "The  Case  System,"  one  of  the  best  methods 
for  teaching  the  novice  in  the  law,  has  been  in  a  measure  resorted 
to,  to  illustrate  the  power  and  functions  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  and  its  preservation,  with  all  of  its  imperfec- 
tions—  to  be  cured  by  amendment,  —  which  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
believed  should  be  preserved  for  the  benefit  of  the  race. 

And  the  war  just  closing  was  finally  prosecuted  by  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  on  the  lines  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
said  he  would  make  war.  His  views  (as  to  how  to  make  modern 
war)  as  set  forth  in  our  last  chapter  (pages  799  to  802)  were 
written  and  criticized  long  before  August,  1914.  That  criticism 
suggests  the  thought  that,  although  a  pacifist,  but  not  a  non- 
resistant,  indeed,  an  adept  in  the  art  of  defending  by  attacking, 
he  would  not  have  waited  until  the  regular  organizations  in  the 


INTRODUCTORY  ix 

War  Department  fell  down  before  utilizing  the  mechanic,  the 
business  organization,  the  business  method,  the  business  man, 
and  if  you  please,  the  malefactor  of  wealth.  At  the  minimum 
his  system  would  have  put,  as  one  of  his  surviving  comrades 
in  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  said  the  night  following  the 
declaration  of  war  on  Germany,  3,000,000  men  in  France  by 
March  1,   1918. 

James  E.  Stewart,  who  avowed  his  indebtedness  to  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  for  counsel  and  advice,  and  whose  ability  in  civil 
affairs  is  set  forth  in  Chapter  XL  (beginning  at  page  641),  and 
something  of  a  soldier,  organized  in  ten  days  in  July,  1918,  the 
nth  Illinois,  and  as  he  marched  it  through  the  city  of  Chicago 
a  few  days  later  said  it  was  as  good  as  any  that  had  gone  to 
France.  This  actual  demonstration  of  Governor  Lowden's 
executive  capacity — and  he  had  some  tutelage  under  George 
M.  Pullman  —  is  conclusive,  we  submit,  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
was  conservative  in  his  statement  as  to  what  might  have  been 
done  in  Illinois  in  raising  volunteers.  Operating  on  business  and 
mechanical  lines,  Governor  Lowden  and  his  organization  could  in 
three  months  following  the  declaration  of  war  against  Germany 
have  delivered  to  the  National  Government  500,000  men  ready 
equipped  for  shipment  to  Germany. 

Conceding  but  not  admitting  the  fact  that  the  draft,  the 
selective  service,  will  produce  more  men  than  the  volunteer  system, 
it  failed  to  produce  the  machinery,  the  guns,  ammunition,  and 
aeroplanes,  to  equip  the  drafted  army.  James  P.  Goodrich  was 
one  of  the  young  fellows  who  undertook  to  make  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  President  in  1888.  Experienced  in  mechanical  and 
business  affairs,  as  well  as  politics,  Governor  Goodrich's  Indiana 
State  Council  of  Defense,  headed  by  Will  H.  Hays,  served  as 
a  model  for  State  and  Nation.  "A  hundred  billion  of  dollars 
and  5,000,000  of  men  if  necessary,  and  not  a  boycott,  "  is  the  way 
the  Chairman  of  the  Indiana  Council  of  Defense  said  he  would 
win  the  war,  and  demonstrated  his  executive  capacity.  That 
maxim  that  Hays  learned  as  a  country  lawyer  that  one  of  the 
best  ways  to  defend  was  to  attack,  was  passed  on  to  the  man  in  U 
Washington. 

General  Omar  Bundy,  the  son  of  Judge  M.  L.  Bundy,1  of 

1  See  page  758. 


X  INTRODUCTORY 

our  Hawaiian  chapter,  opened  the  jack-pot  at  Chateau  Thierry. 
The  sire  many  times  when  on  the  defense  in  a  lawsuit  converted 
a  riot  into  a  victory  by  digging  into  the  plaintiff.1  The  son 
stopped  the  Germans,  and  got  sent  home,  but  made  Foch  come 
in,  and  it  is  said  it  took  much  arguing  on  General  Pershing's 
part  to  make  the  aged  Frenchman  "front  face  to  the  rear."2 
The  parallel  in  part  is  in  General  Grant's  case  as  we  detail  it  in 
the  Shiloh  chapter.3  Grant  disobeyed  orders  and  was  relieved, 
although  he  "whipped  them,"  and  destroyed,  according  to  many 
of  the  Southern  historians,  the  best  single  asset  the  Confederacy 
had,  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  who  was  killed  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  first  day.  When  Mr.  Lincoln  got  all  the  facts,  General 
Grant  was  restored  to  his  command.  It  was  Colonel  T.  Lyle 
Dickey,  the  bearer  of  a  message  from  General  Grant,  the  Com- 
mander of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  who  silenced  the  criticism  of  General  Grant's 
drinking  "by  the  Generals  and  the  Colonels  who  were  thicker 
in  Willard's  Hotel  in  Washington  than  they  were  in  the  Army 
of  the  Tennessee,"  by  declaring  with  much  emphasis  and  some 
profanity  that  if  the  President  of  the  United  States  would  look 
up  "the  brand  of  whisky  General  Grant  drank  and  order  a  train- 
load  down  here  for  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  enough  for  the 
Commander-in-Chief  and  down  to  the  last  private,  the  govern- 
ment might  make  some  headway  with  the  war  in  Virginia. ' '  When 
Mr.  Lincoln  heard  of  the  incident  a  few  hours  later  he  was  delighted 
and  said,  "Dickey,  I  am  going  to  steal  this  idea  from  you.  You 
must  never  use  it  again,  and  I  will  give  it  to  the  next  delegation 
of  preachers  who  come  up  here  protesting  against  General  Grant's 
drinking."  At  that  time  Dickey  was  on  Grant's  staff.  In  civil 
life  he  was  a  lawyer  and  a  good  one  and  he  died  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Illinois. 

We  by  no  means  deprecate  preparation  in  a  lawsuit  nor 
training  for  military  men.  Adverting  to  the  simile  that  Thomas 
F.  Bayard,  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  St.  James  in  1895,  used 
in  advising  Walter  Q.  Gresham  that  the  war  was  coming,  "These 
European  nations  are  watching  each  other  like  pugilists  in  a 
ring,"4  we  suggest  that  it  was  learned  by  that  time  that  pugilists 
could  be  trained  too  fine.     In  Grant's  days  they  fought  with 

1  See  page  185.     2  See  page  240.     3  See  page  175-     4  See  page  794- 


INTRODUCTORY  XI 

bare  knuckles  and  for  blood.  To  be  specific — before  Foch  came 
in,  but  after  Bundy  landed  his  "jolt"  —  as  I  have  heard  the 
spectators  and  seconds  at  the  ringside  urge  the  strong,  husky 
young  fighter,  "Rush  him  now!" — the  cry  went  up,  "We  can 
win!"  The  lines  we  quote  from  Grant's  Memoirs  in  the  Shiloh 
chapter,  about  General  Grant  being  able  to  go  farther  with 
volunteers  than  Buel  with  professional  soldiers,  were  sent  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States  with  the  statement  that  General 
John  A.  Rawlins,  General  Grant's  Chief  of  Staff,  was  a  volunteer 
who  died  the  most  influential  man  in  the  Republic,  and  that  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee,  which  Grant  and  Rawlins  organized  out 
of  volunteers,  never  was  "whipped."  It  is  said  that  General 
Bundy  is  not  entitled  to  the  credit  of  ordering  the  advance 
at  Chateau  Thierry.  So  be  it.  Then  let  credit  be  given  to  the 
man  who  gave  that  order.  The  best  that  Foch  did  was  to 
get  a  "draw."  They  could  have  had  that  at  any  time  after 
it  was  demonstrated  that  we  had  the  "punch,"1  and  thus  saved 
thousands  of  lives. 

Senator  Lodge  helped  edit  "The  Education  of  Henry  Adams." 
That  element  of  force,  the  Russian  Fleet2  for  instance,  that  was 
back  of  all  the  diplomacy  so  graphically  set  forth,  seems  to  have 
escaped  them.  I  was  at  the  courtroom  meeting  described  in  the 
'77  Strike  chapter.3  I  went  into  General  Chapman's  company. 
Afterwards  I  went  with  General  Spooner,  the  United  States 
Marshall,  to  the  Arsenal,  after  the  Federal  troops  came.  I  heard 
the  conference  between  General  Spooner,  General  Morrow  and 
General  Harrison,  for  as  I  dropped  out  at  the  office  door  General 
Harrison  said,  "Spooner,  bring  the  boy  in."  General  Harrison 
called  General  Spooner,  "Spooner,"  while  General  Spooner 
addressed  General  Harrison  as  "Ben."  With  General  Morrow 
they  were  very  formal.  There  was  much  discussion  as  to  how 
many  men  General  Spooner  would  take  with  him.  Finally  he 
ended  the  conference  by  saying,  "Two  lieutenants  and  fifty  men, 
if  they  are  good  ones,  are  all  I  want." 

When  we  returned  to  the  Federal  Building  my  father  said, 
"You  cannot  go  to  Terre  Haute  with  General  Spooner.  There 
may  be  some  trouble  at  our  home;   go  and  stay  there  until  this 

1  British  General  Maurice's  term.  2  See  page  266.  3  See  page  387  et  seq. 


XU  INTRODUCTORY 

squall  is  over."  Our  residence  was  then  on  the  outskirts  of 
Indianapolis,  on  the  corner  of  what  is  now  18th  and  Capitol 
Avenue,  a  block  from  any  other  house.  I  owned  a  good  breach- 
loading,  double-barrel  shotgun  and  a  rifle,  and  there  were  two 
army  revolvers  in  the  house.  That  evening,  a  beautiful  moon- 
light night,  while  my  mother,  Senator  McDonald  and  General 
Harrison  sat  under  the  trees,  General  Harrison  assured  Senator 
McDonald  "that  the  boys  will  make  no  move  this  bright,  moon- 
light night,  and  to-morrow  morning  that  express  car  of  ammu- 
nition will  be  here  from  Chicago."  The  men  on  the  Indianapolis, 
Peru  &  Chicago  Railroad  did  not  strike,  but  they  did  not  know 
they  were  rushing  ammunition  to  Indianapolis.  As  soon  as  the 
ammunition  reached  Indianapolis,  wide  publicity  was  given  to 
its  arrival.  There  was  little  ammunition  although  plenty  of 
arms  and  artillery  at  the  arsenal  when  the  trouble  began,  but  there 
was  an  ample  supply  of  cartridges  for  General  Harrison's  and 
Chapman's  companies.  General  Harrison  had  come  with  General 
Morrow  and  Captain  Isaac  C.  Arnold,  the  Commandant  of  the 
Arsenal,  to  meet  Senator  McDonald  and  others  of  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety  for  a  conference  at  our  house.  Leaving  the  con- 
ference in  the  library,  General  Harrison  and  Senator  McDonald 
came  out  to  visit  with  my  mother  and  Mrs.  Smith,  the  widow  of 
General  Giles  A.  Smith.1  And  my  education  has  not  been  entirely 
under  the  tutelage  of  warriors,  statesmen,  lawyers,  and  school 
teachers. 

It  was  disobedience  to  orders  that  brought  Colonel  Benjamin 
Harrison  his  promotion,  his  most  devoted  followers  always  claimed. 
The  70th  Indiana  was  being  cut  to  pieces  in  a  ravine  at  Resaca. 
When  Colonel  Harrison  applied  to  the  Division  Commander  for 
permission  to  charge  in  order  to  save  the  regiment  from  anni- 
hilation, with  a  reprimand  he  was  sent  back  to  hold  the  line. 
He  charged,  nevertheless,  carried  the  position  in  front  of  him, 
and  the  line  was  advanced  and  "Joe"  Hooker  commended  the 
Colonel  of  the  70th  in  general  orders. 

As  a  trial  lawyer  General  Harrison  knew  how  to  defend  by 
attacking,  as  appears  in  the  account  of  the  Brownlee  case,2  and 
he  suffered  more  mental  anguish  than  he  did  at  Resaca  when,  in 
appearing  for  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  the  Jennings 

1  See  page  307.  2  See  page  447. 


INTRODUCTORY  xiii 

County  Election  Cases,1  Colonel  A.  W.  Hendricks  put  him  on 
the  defense  and  almost  out  before  he  was  fairly  started  on  the 
Government  case. 

Not  one  jot  or  tittle  from  Benjamin  Harrison's  fame,  if 
any,  would  we  detract.  Our  friends  as  well  as  our  critics  will 
have  to  concede  that  we  have  had  some  knowledge  of  his  limita- 
tions and  that  I,  as  a  lawyer  of  more  than  fifteen  years'  experience 
with  all  sorts  of  courts  and  juries,  knew  the  sire  had  enough  force 
of  character  and  popularity  with  the  common  ordinary  man  in 
1892  to  do  what  he  said  he  was  going  to  do,  split  with  President 
Harrison  and  the  Republican  party.  Moreover,  it  can  perhaps 
be  understood  that  we  could  tell  the  newspaper  men  by  counties 
and  townships  at  least  in  Indiana  where  the  votes  were  that 
would  go  with  him.2  George  Ade  was  the  only  newspaper  man 
who  would  publish  our  figures.  All  the  rest  were  afraid,  as  Judge 
Stephens  would  say,  of  being  wrong.  Not  all  the  "practice  and 
procedure"  are  in  the  books,  as  many  trial  lawyers  will  testify. 
At  sixteen  years  of  age  I  learned  the  law  of  conspiracy  in  the 
courtroom  from  Benjamin  Harrison's  lips.  As  the  years  rolled  on 
I  learned  that  he  was  committed  to  certain  principles  of  govern- 
ment—  and  some  of  the  succeeding  pages  show  that  he  realized 
the  effect  and  protested  against  certain  measures  of  his  party.3 
It  was  difficult  to  get  newspaper  men  to  quote  views  privately 
expressed,  that  he  was  against  the  Imperialism  which  William 
McKinley  and  William  Jennings  Bryan  in  a  measure  committed 
us  to  in  the  Philippines.  The  editors  were  afraid  General  Harri- 
son would  disavow;  on  the  contrary,  he  was  glad  to  stand  up  and 
be  counted;  and  yet  the  Editors  said  I  could  not  have  learned 
at  the  fireside  how  "Old  Uncle  Dennis"  made  William  Henry 
Harrison  and  Governor  Posey  in  territorial  days  come  along  on 
the  slavery  question. 

Theorists  and  statesmen  may  legislate,  but  after  all  it  was 
Walter  Q.  Gresham's  conception  that  government  and  civilization 
depend  on  force — on  men  like  Grant,  Fitzsimmons,4  and  Bundy, 
the  man  who  can  go  up  in  the  plane,  down  in  the  submarine,  or 
lead  the  suicide  club  with  the  infantryman  at  his  heels  —  or  the 
man  with  moral  courage  or  force  enough  to  break  with  his  party,5 
or  to  stand  up  against  a  Grant — as  well  as  the  consent  of  the 

1  See  page  472.   2  See  page  675.   3  See  page  656.   4  See  page  800.   5  See  page  670. 


XIV  INTRODUCTORY 

governed.  Again,  with  all  due  deference  to  the  devout  and  the 
materialist,  "the  favored  of  Him  who  rules  on  high"  is  not  always 
considerate  of  functionaries  and  forms.  Often  he  alone  is  con- 
scious of  his  gifts  until  there  is  an  actual  demonstration.  Accord- 
ing to  Milton,  although  recognizing  "the  Potency  of  Him  above," 
the  devil's  conception  was  that  the  human  race  is  his  "inferior 
in  power  and  excellence." 

The  women  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham's  family  were  not  denied 
the  privilege  of  thinking  out  loud,  even  if  they  were  at  times  a 
little  illogical  in  reaching  their  conclusions.  And  he  was  not 
adverse  to  accepting  Matilda  Gresham's  conclusions,  even  though 
based  on  illogical  processes,  in  aid  of  his  own  judicial  conscience. 
To  get  the  human  point  of  view,  he  often  invoked  the  judgment 
of  well-informed  women  outside  his  own  family. 

The  rule  of  law  that  prevents  husband  and  wife  from  testify- 
ing for  or  against  each  other  is  not  founded  on  the  rule  that  the 
best  informed  shall  best  enlighten  the  court.  Time  was,  within 
the  memory  of  men  now  living,  when  the  parties  who  of  necessity 
knew  more  about  the  facts  in  a  litigation,  if  plaintiff  or  defendant 
on  the  civil  side  or  defendant  in  the  King's  Court  or  the  courts  of 
the  States  of  this  Union,  could  not  testify,  even  though  his  or  her 
property  or  his  or  her  life  were  involved. 

The  facts  presented  in  this  work  comprise  the  testimony  of 
Matilda  Gresham,  presented  to  the  court  of  the  public  as  a  com- 
petent witness.  Southern  by  birth  and  inheritance,  she  had 
heard  slavery  discussed  from  girlhood,  and  was  familiar  with  its 
moral  and  social  aspects,  its  historical  and  legal  bearings,  as 
fully  almost  as  her  husband.  She  is  therefore  a  competent  wit- 
ness on  this  subject,  and  as  it  forms  a  very  considerable  part  of 
this  work  the  reader  should  bear  her  competency  in  mind  in  case 
the  facts  and  conclusions  given  do  not  always  agree  with  his  own 
understandings  and  conceptions.  The  attitude  of  Union  officers, 
at  the  front,  as  to  the  lines  on  which  reconstruction  should  be 
undertaken,  Matilda  Gresham  states  just  as  she  heard  the  subject 
discussed  in  camp  and  army  headquarters.  The  history  of  the 
important  legal  cases  Walter  Q.  Gresham  handled  as  a  Federal 
Judge,  the  history  of  his  acts  as  a  member  of  the  cabinet  of  two 
administrations,  his  breaking  away  from  his  party  in  1892, 
Matilda  Gresham  gives  from  the  standpoint  of  the  one  person 


INTRODUCTORY  XV 

in  the  world  most  competent  to  understand  the  motives  that 
actuated  her  husband.  She  took  part  in  daily  councils  whenever 
any  momentous  matter  was  at  issue,  and  her  judgment  and  opinion 
were  asked  and  often  counted  in  the  final  act.  She  is  therefore  a 
competent  witness  before  the  court,  and  it  is  hoped  that  her  narra- 
tive, as  presented  in  these  volumes,  will  be  accepted  as  a  sincere 
attempt  to  make  clear  the  events  of  those  years  when  the  destinies 
of  our  great  country  were  in  the  crucible,  and  of  the  part  that 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  had  in  them. 

Her  deductions  are  her  own,  and  while  the  Editor  and  the 
Censor  may  say  they  are  often  only  the  prejudice  of  the  woman 
and  of  the  "Lost  Cause,"  it  can  be  affirmed  that  even  prejudices 
are  realities.  The  consideration  for  the  Southern  brother  that 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  manifested  as  a  schoolboy  was  not  lessened 
by  his  association  with  the  woman  of  prejudices.  The  means  or 
arguments  that  he  brought  to  bear  on  those  prejudices,  that 
assuaged  the  prejudices  of  the  Union  soldiers,  are  a  part  of  the 
unwritten  history  of  the  times.  Horace  Bell  was  afraid  of  no 
man,  but  he  quailed  before  the  prejudices  of  a  woman — it  took 
a  woman,  his  second  wife,  to  induce  him  to  let  the  true  story  of 
the  "Brandenburg  Affair"1  be  written. 

Questions,  too,  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham  said  the  fathers 
thought  would  be  settled  without  the  wager  of  battle,2  the  Editors 
and  Censors  say  the  woman  should  not  be  permitted  to  assert 
could  and  should  have  been  settled  as  reasonable  men  settle 
differences.  "Absolutely  contrary  to  all  history,"  said  the 
Editors,  when  the  woman  asserted  what  she  knew  as  a  child, 
what  she  learned  before,  during,  and  after  the  Rebellion,  that 
the  large  slaveholder  was  not  a  Secessionist,  that  it  was  the 
Abolitionist  and  the  "Hill  Billies"  who  precipitated  the  war. 
Our  text  shows  that  on  the  final  call  it  was  Wendell  Phillips,  the 
Abolitionist  lawyer,  who  insisted  on  the  wager  of  battle.  One 
of  our  Abolitionist  Editors  changed  our  text  to  read,  "The  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  of  1850  was  probably  constitutional."  We  adhere 
to  our  original  statement  that  it  was  constitutional  and  we  are 
borne  out  by  the  opinions  of  Clay  and  Webster,  by  opinions  of 
every  Federal  judge  on  the  Circuits  in  the  North,  foremost  among 
whom  was  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  Benjamin  R. 

1  Chapter  V,  page  78.  2  Chapter  XXIX,  page  470. 


xvi  INTRODUCTORY 

Curtis,  whose  appointment  Mr.  Webster  had  secured  from  Presi- 
dent Fillmore  because  as  a  lawyer  Curtis  had  promptly  declared 
the  law  constitutional,  and  finally,  b^  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  in  Ableman  vs.  Booth,  21  Howard  506.  The 
Editor  wanted  to  excuse  his  ancestor  for  disobeying  the  law. 
"An  unconstitutional  law  is  void,  and  is  as  no  law."1  Wendell 
Phillips  never  denied  it  was  constitutional.  It  helped  prove  his 
second  premise  that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  was  a 
pro-slavery  instrument.  He  continued  to  maintain  what  Justice 
Curtis  conceded  to  be  his  right  to  revolt  and  figured  there  would 
be  no  place  for  Curtis  to  stop  in  the  Dred  Scott  case.  And  so  it 
is  that  we  say  in  Chapter  VI,  the  Dred  Scott  case  was  one  made 
up  by  the  Abolitionists.2 

The  lawyer  often  goes  "far  afield"  but  always  with  the  hole  in 
mind  out  of  which  he  will  come — often  to  the  amazemsnt  and 
chagrin  of  the  statesmen  and  the  judges  to  say  nothing  of  the  less 
informed.  Wendell  Phillips,  an  adept  in  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession, was  not  the  first  on  this  line.  James  Otis  preceded  him, 
and,  as  we  show,  conceived  the  American  Nation.3  Hargrave, 
the  English  lawyer,  in  the  "Negro  Case"  copied  Otis  and  played 
on  Mansfield's  prejudice  against  Massachusetts.4  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  as  a  lawyer  could  see  a  hole  through  a  millstone  as  soon 
as  most  of  his  associates  and  not  much  was  ever  "put  over"  on 
him  as  a  judge. 

Thomas  Drummond,  the  czar  of  the  Seventh  Circuit,  as  one 
aggrieved  lawyer  denounced  him,  prominent  in  the  judicial  chap- 
ters,5 who  never  sidestepped  a  patent  case,  was  appointed  United 
States  District  Judge  for  the  District  of  Illinois  by  President  Tay- 
lor a  short  time  before  the  appointment  of  Benjamin  R.  Curtis 
to  the  Supreme  Court.  To  my  own  knowledge,  night  after  night 
Matilda  Gresham  heard  Thomas  Drummond  and  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  discuss  not  only  Otis,  Mansfield,  the  English  judge, 
and  Hargrave,  the  English  lawyer,  the  English  judges  and  lawyers 
of  that  time  as  well  as  many  of  the  English  judges  and  lawyers 
who  welcomed  Thomas  Drummond  as  a  man  who  made  prece- 
dent, but  also  the  avowed  incapacity  of  Justice  Harlan  in  patent 
litigation,  the  shortcomings  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  that  branch 

l/rc  re  Siebold,  ioo  U   S.  376.  2  See  page  106.  3  See  page  38. 

4  See  page  36.  5  Chapters  XXI,  XXII,  XXIII,  and  XXXII. 


INTRODUCTORY  XV11 

of  the  law  as  set  forth  in  the  judicial  chapters,  Wendell  Phillips, 
Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850 — the  consti- 
tutionality of  which  District  Judge  Drummond  sustained  before 
Mr.  Curtis  went  on  the  bench — Abraham  Lincoln,  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  and  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates.  After  serving  in  the 
legislature,  with  Lincoln  and  Douglas  both  as  lawyers  appeared 
in  Judge  Drummond's  court.  Often  the  women  broke  into  the 
discussion.  To  use  one  of  Judge  Drummond's  own  expressions, 
"I  first  settled  at  Galena  and  became  one  of  the  '  Galena  Gang,'" 
among  whom  was  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  and  last  but  not  least  in  im- 
portance on  the  practical  side,  J.  Russell  Jones.1 

After  Benjamin  R.  Curtis's  dissent  and  resignation  in  the 
Dred  Scott  case  only  to  meet  Phillips'  scorn,  for  the  judgment 
of  the  court  proved  finally  Phillips'  second  premise,  that  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States  was  a  pro-slavery  instrument, 
Curtis  went  back  to  the  bar  and  became  the  counsel  and  adviser 
of  the  commercial  interests  of  New  England  whose  lines  were 
every  day  becoming  more  potential  in  the  Northwest.  Before 
going  on  the  bench  he  had  been  denounced  by  Phillips  as  "the 
Boston  representative  of  the  New  Orleans  Cotton  Exchange" 
and  then  as  "the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Judge."  Mr.  Curtis  often 
appeared  in  Judge  Drummond's  court.  And  as  we  further 
heard  at  the  fireside,  on  the  advice  of  Judge  Drummond,  J. 
Russell  Jones  employed  Benjamin  R.  Curtis  to  aid  Corydon 
Beckwith,  the  regular  counsel  for  Mr.  Jones'  corporations,  in 
their  contest  with  the  corporations  steered  by  Melville  W.  Fuller. 
"And  the  way  we  cleaned  up  the  future  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States  and  his  clients,"  said  Mr.  Jones,  "gave  me  all  the 
credit  I  needed  with  the  financial  interests."  Written  opinions 
of  Mr.  Curtis  up  to  a  few  years  ago  were  among  the  archives  of 
the  North  Chicago  Street  Railway  Company.  "Law  suits  were 
brought  in  remote  districts,"  said  Mr.  Jones,  "and  prosecuted 
through  the  Supreme  Court  without  the  Supreme  Court  or  '  Mel ' 
Fuller  suspecting  the  use  that  would  be  and  finally  was  made 
of  the  decisions  thus  obtained." 

"Something  of  a  speculator  on  the  safe  side,"  as  Matilda 
Gresham  says,2  when  she  came  home  and  told  her  father,  who      v 
was  a  secessionist,  that  she  proposed  to  "bet  on  the  Union" — 

1  See  pages  139  and  140;  also  pages  33s  and  336.  2  See  page  196. 

B 


XVlll  INTRO  D  U  C  T  O  R  Y 

that  is,  buy  government  bonds, — the  reader  will  probably 
conclude  that  she  could  appreciate  and  intelligently  set  forth  her 
husband's  financial  position,  and  later  on  did  not  want  any  of 
J.  Russell  Jones's  street  railway  securities. 

Availing  ourselves  of  the  rule  of  pleading  that  admits  of  an- 
ticipating and  countering  possible  objections,  we  advert  to  the 
statement  of  James  G.  Blaine,  in  his  "  Twenty  Years  of  Congress," 
that  the  large  slaveholder  and  man  of  property  in  the  South  was 
against  secession,  and  that  her  own  moral  instincts  as  a  child 
were  reflected,  as  Walter  Q.  Gresham  said,  in  the  utterances  of 
all  the  Southern  jurists  and  the  best  of  the  Southern  men.  On 
December  27,  1856,  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee  wrote  to  his  wife: 
"There  are  few,  I  believe,  in  this  enlightened  age  who  will  not 
acknowledge  that  slavery  as  an  institution  is  a  moral  and  political 
evil  in  any  country.  .  .  I  think  it  is  a  greater  evil  to  the  white 
than  to  the  black  race."  Concrete  proof  of  the  evil  to  the  white 
race  could  be  furnished  by  Matilda  Gresham,  and  a  great  many 
people  of  the  South  will  admit  it  to-day.  But  at  that  it  must 
be  granted  that  the  contact  with  such  men  and  women  as  Robert 
E.  Lee  and  his  wife,  and  there  were  many  such  in  the  South, 
fostered  the  claim  that  the  institution  was  humanizing  and 
Christianizing  to  the  savage. 

Before  "Pat"  Cleburn  put  it  up  in  writing  to  the  President  of 
the  Confederacy,  Colonel  Edmund  Barkley  of  the  8th  Virginia 
Regiment,  Pickett's  Division,  is  our  authority  for  the  statement 
that  General  Lee  orally  advised  Mr.  Davis  to  free  and  conscript 
the  negro.  So  there  may  be  something  in  the  claims  of  Jefferson 
Davis  and  Robert  E.  Lee  that  it  was  a  theory  of  government 
and  not  a  principle  of  morals  for  which  they  "went  out." 

Before  the  resolutions  of  '98  the  1  ith  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  which  prohibits  a  State  of  the 
Union  from  being  sued  by  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  was  put  on  its  way  to  rati- 
fication. In  Chisholm  vs.  Georgia,  the  first  milestone  of  the 
constitution,  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
in  1793,  Chisholm  was  given  a  judgment  for  money  which  the 
State  of  Georgia  owed  him.  Pending  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  there  were  many  claims  of  indi- 
viduals against  the  States  which  went  into  suit  as  soon  as  the 


INTRODUCTORY  XIX 

Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  was  organized.  When  the 
State  of  Georgia  said  the  attempted  enforcement  of  the  Chisholm 
judgment  would  be  resisted  with  force,  John  Marshall,  afterwards 
rated  our  greatest  Chief  Justice,  along  with  John  Hancock,  then 
the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  John  Sedgwick,  then  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  and  the  Federalist  speaker  of  the  House,  became 
the  leaders  in  pressing  for  the  nth  Amendment  to  do  as  it  did, 
prohibit  a  citizen  suing  a  State  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States. 
Immunity  of  the  State  from  suit  in  the  face  of  threats  of  forcible 
resistance  was  the  very  essence  if  not  the  virile  seed  of  secession. 
Chief  Justice  Marshall's  fame  as  a  jurist  rests  largely  on  those 
subsequent  milestones  of  the  constitution  which  he  wrote  in  around 
that  nth  Amendment,  but  that  his  fine  judicial  judgments  did 
not  disturb  the  belief  of  the  advocates  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
State  may  possibly  be  understood  by  the  reader  of  our  chapter l 
in  which  it  is  set  forth  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  as  the  orator  of 
the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  in  welcoming  "the  old  commander" 
home  from  his  trip  around  the  world  in  1879,  said,  "the  supremacy 
of  the  States  which  the  South  asserted  and  we  denied  was  sur- 
rendered at  Appomattox."  And  then  he  added  what  the  Editors 
would  not  allow  in  our  text — a  wide  publicity  of  which  might 
in  these  later  days  have  saved  some  men  from  prison  stripes,2  — 
"that  the  soldiers  wrote  that  the  National  Government  can  use  force 
not  only  at  home  but  also  abroad." 

And  reared  as  I  was,  it  can  perhaps  be  comprehended  that 
as  a  lawyer  my  task  was  easy, — for  I  could  see  the  conviction 
produced, — in  advising  men,  both  white  and  black,  who,  it  was 
said,  had  been  influenced  by  the  pacifists  and  Pro-Germans.  I 
had  them  enlisting  before  the  draft  came.  The  white  men  were 
concerned  about  an  early  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  that  men  could  not  be  drafted  for  service  abroad, 
while  the  negroes  said,  "We  owe  no  duty  to  that  old  Confeder- 
ate Government.  They  never  did  want  us  free,  nohow."  In 
arguing  a  proposition,  a  lawyer  is  seldom  ever  embarrassed  by 
sensibilities  and  what  the  critics  and  literary  men  call  good  taste, 
especially  if  the  mind  to  be  reached  is  not  concerned  by  such 
considerations.     It  was  not  so  much  a  case  of  "German  Propa- 

1  See  Chapter  XXIX. 

2U.  S.  ps.  Krafft  249  Fed.  Rep.  919.     Selective  Draft  Law  Cases,  24s  U.  S.  367-     Chief 
Justice  White,  an  ex-Confederate,  writing  the  opinion. 


XX  INTRODUCTORY 

ganda"  as  of  hysteria  on  the  part  of  many  of  our  good  men  and 
women,  when  they  criticized  those  who  did  not  agree  with  every 
visionary,  impracticable,  and  unconstitutional  measure  as  soon 
as  proposed. 

Never  did  Walter  Q.  Gresham  say  or  do  an  unwise  thing  as  to 
the  slavery  question.  He  understood  its  history  better  than  most 
men,  and  he  was  able  to  reconcile  the  point  of  view  of  the  South 
with  that  of  the  North,  but  when  it  came  to  the  jeopardy  of  the 
Union  he  did  not  hesitate  as  to  the  side  with  which  his  destiny 
was  linked. 

Our  Southern  women  at  least  will  appreciate  Walter  Q.  Gres- 
ham's  insistence  that  at  the  start  it  must  not  be  a  John  Brown 
servile  insurrection.  Back  of  the  scenes  a  single  man  in  a  well- 
oiled  complicated  piece  of  political  machinery  may  be  most 
potential.  The  young  men  who  would  have  to  do  the  righting 
told  the  statesmen  where  to  head  in.  That  the  contest  was 
fierce  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham  incurred  the 
charge  of  being  disloyal  from  no  less  a  man  than  Oliver  P.  Morton, 
the  evidence  of  which  the  woman  preserved  and  has  set  forth  in 
this  l^ook.1 

Suggesting  to  General  Crocker  in  starch,  1864,  that  his  negress 
cook  at  the  Hebron  Mansion  was  a  Confederate  spy,  Confederate 
officers  since  the  war  have  said  attests  the  accuracy  of  the  woman 
instincts  and  illustrates  conditions  that  the  Yankees  seldom  if 
ever  realized.  The  devotion  of  the  negro  "to  his  beloved  South," 
as  "Pat"  Cleburn  put  it,  is  conclusively  established  by  the  fact 
that  negroes  are  to-day  on  the  pension  rolls  of  most  if  not  all 
of  the  Cotton  States. 

That  there  were  as  good  Union  men  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  as  there  were  north  of  it,  and  slaveholders  at  that, — 
Kentucky  was  full  of  them, — was  clearly  known  to  Matilda 
Gresham  and  to  Walter  Q.  Gresham.  Senator  Zebulon  Vance  and 
Mrs.  Vance  were  among  their  intimates  in  Washington.  In  the 
early  days  of  1861  all  over  North  Carolina  "Zeb"  Vance  made 
Union  speeches.  "If  North  Carolina  goes  out  of  the  Union  she 
will  go  to  hell,"  wound  up  many  a  speech  that  produced  convic- 
tion. In  response  to  those  speeches  North  Carolina  elected 
delegates  pledged  to  the  Union,  and  in  convention  assembled  those 

1  See  pages  136  and  212. 


INTRODUCTORY  XXI 

delegates  so  voted.  But  when  these  same  delegates,  carried  away 
by  the  hysteria  in  South  Carolina,  forgot  their  instruction  and 
voted  North  Carolina  out  of  the  Union,  Vance  was  one  of  the  first 
to  enlist  in  the  Confederate  army,  and  in  1862,  when  a  colonel,  he 
was  elected  war  governor  of  the  State.  And  the  way  he  impressed 
slackers  and  antebellum  fire-eaters  into  the  army  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  North  Carolina  had  more  men  in  line  at  the  surrender 
than  almost  the  whole  balance  of  the  South  combined. 

General  Sherman  wanted  to  continue  "Zeb"  Vance  and 
similar  men  in  office  after  the  surrender.1  But  of  this  there  is  no 
mention  in  the  Southern  histories. 

As  governor  of  North  Carolina  "Zeb"  Vance  encountered 
the  opposition  of  North  Carolina  judges,  who  criticized  in  habeas 
corpus  proceedings  the  judgment  of  Chief  Justice  Taney  in  Able- 
man  vs.  Booth.  Other  judges  upheld  that  decision  and  pointed 
out  that  the  Wisconsin  decision,  which  the  Ableman  case  reversed, 
if  upheld  in  the  Confederacy  would  do  for  it  what  the  Wisconsin 
decision  had  done  for  the  Union,  help  split  it.2  To  the  absence 
of  a  Federal  judiciary  and  decisions  such  as  the  War  Governor 
of  North  Carolina  encountered  Walter  Q.  Gresham  pointed  as 
indisputable  proof  that  "the  Confederacy"  would  ultimately  go 
to  pieces.  Sitting  in  for  months  at  the  mess  table  with  soldiers, 
at  the  dinner  table  with  the  planter  and  the  man  and  woman 
from  the  North  whose  property  interests  took'  them  South  right 
in  the  midst  of  the  war,  the  reader  of  the  Natchez  chapters 
will  perhaps  be  able  to  agree  with  Matilda  Gresham,  that  her 
husband  was  always  considerate  of  the  welfare  of  the  individual 
man  and  woman,  that  is,  he  always  looked  on  the  practical 
side  and  saw  many  things  —  decisions  of  the  Southern  or  Con- 
federate Courts  —  that  concerned  the  men  and  women  of  those 
days  that  have  not  been  much  commented  on  even  in  the  South. 

There  is  complete  corroboration  in  the  recital  of  facts  as  set 
forth  in  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
in  Neal  Dow  vs.  Johnson,  100  U.  S.  158,  of  what  the  woman  says 
about  conditions  in  Natchez  in  1863  and  1864. 

Opposing  Walter  Q.  Gresham's  entering  Cleveland's  cabinet 
as  vehemently  as  she  opposed  his  entering  the  "Yankee"  army, 

1  Chapter  XVII,  page  281;  Chapter  XIX,  pages  322  and  324;  Sherman's  Letters, 
pages  243  and  245. 

2  In  the  matter  of  Bryan's  Petition,  60  N.  C.  1. 


XX11  INTRODUCTORY 

Matilda  Gresham,  like  "Zeb"  Vance,  yielded  to  circumstances, 
and  like  a  good  soldier  became  an  efficient  supporter  of  the  second 
Cleveland  administration,  just  as  she  had  supported  her  husband 
as  a  Yankee  soldier. 

The  preparation  of  this  work  has  been  a  matter  of  years.  For 
aid  rendered  us  we  are  indebted  first  to  S.  W.  Burnham,  the  noted 
astronomer  who  was  Clerk  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for 
the  Northern  District  of  Illinois,  John  H.  R.  Jamar,  Deputy  Clerk 
in  that  office,  Noble  C.  Butler,  Clerk,  and  W.  C.  Nicholas  and 
Edward  McDevitt,  Deputy  Clerks,  of  the  United  States  Court  at 
Indianapolis,  Henry  Watterson,  Samuel  B.  Kerr,  James  Surget, 
Captain  Allen  G.  Bowie,  George  W.  Lindsay,  John  F.  Jenkins, 
Mrs.  S.  B.  Rumble,  Miss  Annie  L.  Rumble,  Miss  Julia  Nutt,  Mrs. 
Rhodes,  Mrs.  W.  P.  Callon,  Lieut.  Aaron  R.  ("Tip")  Stanton  of 
Natchez,  Miss.,  Mrs.  Ora  Thompson  Ross,  Mrs.  Morris  Ross, 
Judge  Kenesaw  Mountain  Landis,  Congressman  J.  Hampton 
Moore,  Congressman  Wm.  E.  Cox,  Henry  Vincent,  Louis  How- 
land,  Hewitt  Hanson  Howland,  William  H.  Blodgett,  Charles 
W.  Smith,  Captain  Eli  F.  Ritter,  John  W.  Munday,  Robert  H. 
Parkinson,  General  James  E.  Stewart,  and  the  banker,  Edmund 
D.  Hulbert. 

The  manuscript  has  been  re- written  many  times.  Even  in 
the  proof,  many  changes  have  been  made,  the  latter  chiefly  at  the 
suggestion  of  Mr.  F.  G.  Browne,  who  has  supervised  the  making 
of  the  volumes  and  has  prepared  the  elaborate  analytical  Index. 

Chicago,  Otto  Gresham. 

September  i,  igig. 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I— BIRTH,  ANCESTRY,  AND  EARLY  YEARS 

MRS.   GRESHAM'S  BIRTH  AND  ANCESTRY  —  CONDITIONS  IN  KEN- 
TUCKY IN  THE   '40'S  AND   50'S — HER  FATHER'S  RELIGION  AND 
POLITICS  —  MEETS    WALTER   Q.    GRESHAM,    A   LAW   STUDENT  AT 
CORYDON  —  HIS 
UNCLE   DENNIS : 

TLERS  AND  FOREMOST  ANTI-SLAVERY  MEN  —  PENNINGTON'S 
LONG  LEGISLATIVE  CAREER  —  CHANGE  OF  INDIANA'S  CAPITAL 
FROM  VINCENNES  TO  CORYDON  —  HARRISON  COUNTY'S  FIRST 
SETTLER,  MAJOR  JOHN  HARBISON  —  RESCUE  OF  HARBISON'S 
STEPCHILDREN  FROM  THE  INDIANS  —  GRESHAM'S  SCHOOL  DAYS, 
STUDY  OF  LAW  AND  ADMISSION  TO  THE  BAR  —  HIS  PARTNER- 
SHIP WITH  T.   C.   SLAUGHTER  —  EARLY  PRACTICE. 

CHAPTER  II— THE  "UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD"       .     .32 

PERSONAL  LIBERTY  LAWS  —  THE  SOMMERSET  OR  "  NEGRO 
CASE" — MAN  STEALING  ACT  AND  JOINT  RESOLUTION — FUGITIVE 
SLAVE  LAWS— PRIGG  CASE — CALIFORNIA  GOLD  RUSH — WENDELL 
PHILLIPS  HOLDS  MASSACHUSETTS  OUT  OF  THE  UNION  BUT 
WEBSTER  ENFORCES  THE  NATIONAL  LAW — WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM 
NO   ABOLITIONIST. 

CHAPTER  III— THE  KANSAS- NEBRASKA  BILL     ...     56 

"SQUATTER  SOVEREIGNTY" — CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  SALMON 
P.  CHASE  —  THE  ELECTION  OF  1 8  54  —  ATTEMPT  TO  DEFEAT 
WILLIAM  H.  ENGLISH,  DEMOCRATIC  MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS  — 
WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM  ANTI-NEBRASKA  CANDIDATE  FOR  PROSE- 
CUTING ATTORNEY  —  ASIATIC  CHOLERA  —  " KNOW-NOTHING* ' 
RIOTS  IN  LOUISVILLE  —  BLOODY  MONDAY  —  GRESHAM  ON  THE 
STUMP — HELPS    ORGANIZE    THE    REPUBLICAN   PARTY. 

CHAPTER  IV  — MARRIAGE— CAMPAIGN  OF  1858    ...     72 

MARRIAGE  AND  WEDDING  TRIP  —  NEWSPAPERS  —  BUCHANAN 
REPUDIATES  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL  —  ATTEMPTS  TO  ADMIT 
KANSAS  AS  A  SLAVE  STATE — DOUGLAS  DENOUNCES  AND  DEFEATS 
BUCHANAN  —  KANSAS   REJECTS   ENGLISH   BILL. 

CHAPTER  V— THE  BRANDENBURG  AFFAIR       ....     78 

WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM'S  LAW  BUSINESS  —  THE  BRANDENBURG 
AFFAIR  —  HEROISM    OF    HORACE    BELL — ADJUSTMENT    OF    THE 

xxiii 


XXIV  CONTENTS 

CONTROVERSY  WHICH  PROMISED  TO  END  IN  WAR  —  STATUS  OF 
SLAVEHOLDERS  AS  TO  WAR  —  STANLEY  YOUNG  KILLS  COLONEL 
MARSH. 

CHAPTER  VI— THE  LINCOLN -DOUGLAS  DEBATES  .  .  92 
Lincoln's  "house  divided  against  itself"  speech,  which 
led  to  the  lincoln-douglas  debates — the  pretext  for 
secession  —  the  dred  scott  case  —  mr.  lincoln's  assault 
on  chief  justice  taney — the  dred  scott  case  as  part  of 
the  abolitionists'  system  of  agitation  and  revolution. 

CHAPTER  VII— ELECTED  TO  INDIANA  LEGISLATURE   .   no 

GRESHAM  A  DELEGATE  TO  REPUBLICAN  STATE  CONVENTION  — 
CONTEST  BETWEEN  LANE  AND  MORTON  —  DIVISION  OF 
DEMOCRATIC  PARTY  —  CHARLESTON  CONVENTION  —  DEBATE 
BETWEEN  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  AND  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS  — 
NOMINATION  OF  DOUGLAS  AT  BALTIMORE  —  NOMINATION  OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  AT  CHICAGO  CONVENTION  —  GRESHAM 
REPUBLICAN  NOMINEE  FOR  LEGISLATURE  —  DEFEATS  HANCOCK 
—  LINCOLN   ELECTED   AS   PRESIDENT. 

CHAPTER  VIII  — UNION  SPEECHES  IN  KENTUCKY  .      .121 

SECESSION  —  GRESHAM  MAKES  UNION  SPEECHES  IN  KENTUCKY 
—RESOLUTIONS  DEPRECATING  SECESSION  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA — 
HENRY  CLAY'S  SPEECH  IN  DEBATE  ON  THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850 
— USED  BY  GRESHAM — CRITTENDEN'S  RESOLUTIONS  IN  SENATE 
FOR  AMENDMENT  OF  CONSTITUTION  TO  SETTLE  CONTROVERSY 
BETWEEN  NORTH  AND  SOUTH  —  GEORGE  D.  PRENTICE'S  POSI- 
TION AND  VIEWS  AS  EXPRESSED  IN  NEWSPAPER  EDITORIALS  — 
KENTUCKY  ADOPTS  NEUTRALITY  AND  STAYS  IN  UNION. 

CHAPTER  IX— INDIANA  PREPARES  FOR  WAR  ....    129 

FIRST  SESSION  OF  INDIANA  LEGISLATURE  —  RESOLUTIONS  ON 
THE  STATE  AND  THE  UNION  —  GRESHAM  REPRESENTS  THE 
"TRAITOR"  HEFFRON  IN  KENTUCKY  COURTS  — PEACE  CON- 
FERENCE —  wendell    phillips's    speech  —  abolitionists 

WOULD  NOT  COMPROMISE  —  GRESHAM  CHAIRMAN  MILITARY 
COMMITTEE  OF  THE  HOUSE,  AND  COLONEL  ON  GOVERNOR'S 
STAFF — CRITTENDEN  RESOLUTIONS — GRESHAM's  BREACH  WITH 
GOVERNOR  MORTON  —  SPECIAL  SESSION  OF  INDIANA  LEGISLA- 
TURE —  GRESHAM  PUTS  THROUGH  BILL  VESTING  APPOINTMENT 
OF  FIELD  AND  LINE  OFFICERS  OF  REGIMENTS  IN  HANDS  OF 
GOVERNOR. 


CONTENTS  XXV 

CHAPTER  X— OPENING  OF  THE  WAR 146 

WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM  ENLISTS  AS  A  PRIVATE  —  KENTUCKY 
LEGISLATURE  ADJOURNS  —  REBEL  VICTORY  AT  BULL  RUN  — 
CRITTENDEN  RESOLUTIONS  PUT  THROUGH  CONGRESS  —  WAR 
TO  PRESERVE  THE  UNION— KENTUCKY  STAYS  WITH  THE  NORTH 
— END  OF  NEUTRALITY — GRESHAM  COMMISSIONED  LIEUTENANT- 
COLONEL  OF  THIRTY-EIGHTH  INDIANA  VOLUNTEERS  —  LOUIS- 
VILLE "COURIER"  SUPPRESSED  —  WAR  BEGUN  —  BUCKNER 
INVADES  KENTUCKY  —  WHY  HE  DID  NOT  GET  TO  LOUISVILLE  — 
GRESHAM  MEETS  SHERMAN  —  KENTUCKY  LEGISLATURE  CALLS 
FOR  40,000  SOLDIERS  —  LETTERS  FROM  KENTUCKY  CAMPS  — 
GRESHAM  STUDIES  HARD  —  ON  PICKET  DUTY  —  SUFFERING  OF 
WOMEN  AT  HOME — GRESHAM  TENDERED  COLONELCY  OF  FIFTY- 
THIRD    INDIANA   REGIMENT. 

CHAPTER  XI  — FIFTY-THIRD  INDIANA  VOLUNTEERS     .    168 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  REGIMENT — GRESHAM  FIRST  COLONEL — 
THE  FIFTY-THIRD  GUARDS  PRISONERS  CAPTURED  AT  FORT 
DONELSON  —  GOES  DOWN  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  TO  JOIN  GENERAL 
GRANT  —  SICKNESS  IN  CAMP  —  REGIMENT  GOES  UP  OHIO  AND 
TENNESSEE  RIVERS  TOWARD   SAVANNAH. 

CHAPTER  XII— THE  BATTLE  OF  SHILOH 175 

FIRST  MEETING  WITH  GENERAL  GRANT  —  GRESHAM  COMMANDS 
POST  AND  BRIGADE  AT  SAVANNAH  —  GRANT'S  ARMY  WORSTED 
BUT  NOT  DEFEATED  IN  FIRST  DAY'S  FIGHT  —  GRANT  PROTECTS 
SHERMAN  —  GRANT  RELIEVED  OF  HIS  COMMAND  —  RAWLINS' 
SECRET  REPORTS  CAUSE  MR.  LINCOLN  TO  RESTORE  GRANT  TO 
COMMAND  —  COURT  MARTIAL   OF   COLONEL   WORTHINGTON. 

CHAPTER  XIII  — CORINTH  AND  MEMPHIS 186 

siege  and  evacuation  of  corinth — memphis  evacuated  — 
general  grant  opens  up  vicksburg  campaign — sherman's 
movement  down  the  river  —  fourth  of  july  in  the  con- 
federacy —  gresham  does  the  talking  —  robert  dale 
owen's  letter  to  secretary  chase  on  abolition — inter- 
nal CONDITIONS  IN  GRANT'S  ARMY — HOW  ABOLITIONISM  WAS 
BROUGHT  ABOUT  —  AT  COLLIERVILLE  —  GRESHAM  DEVELOPS 
TYPHOID  —  RIFT  BETWEEN  GRESHAM  AND  GOVERNOR  MORTON 
WIDENED. 

CHAPTER  XIV— BEFORE  VICKSBURG 218 

THE    TAKING    OF    VICKSBURG  —  COLONEL    GRESHAM'S    LETTERS 
FROM    THE    FRONT,    WRITTEN    FROM    MAY    1 5,    1863,    TO    CLOSE 
"      OF  THE    SIEGE. 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   XV  —  MORGAN'S  RAID 229 

MORGAN'S  REASONS  FOR  HIS  RAID  INTO  INDIANA — COUNTED  ON 
AID  FROM  SYMPATHIZERS  NORTH  OF  THE  OHIO  RIVER — MORGAN 
CAPTURES  TWO  STEAMERS  AND  CROSSES  THE  RIVER  —  THE 
DEFENSE    OF    CORYDON  —  CARE    OF    CONFEDERATE    WOUNDED. 

CHAPTER  XVI— NATCHEZ  IN  1863 239 

COLONIAL  HOMES  OF  NATCHEZ  —  "ROSALIE,"  GRANT'S  HEAD- 
QUARTERS—  GRESHAM  IN  COMMAND  OF  NATCHEZ  —  COTTON  A 
CAUSE  OF  DOWNFALL  OF  CONFEDERACY  —  EFFECT  OF  ENLIST- 
MENT OF  NEGROES  —  GRESHAM  ENFORCES  LAW  AND  ORDER  — 
PRESERVES  RIGHTS  OF  NONCOMBATANTS  —  PROCLAMATION  OF 
AMNESTY  AND  PARDON  —  MORTALITY  AMONG  CONTRABANDS 
WHO   FLOCKED    TO    THE    TOWNS  —  RECONSTRUCTION   BEGUN. 

CHAPTER  XVII— MINOR  CAMPAIGNS— RE-ENLISTMENTS  265 

HARMFUL  PROLONGATION  OF  THE  WAR — AMERICA'S  OBLIGATION 
TO  OTHER  LANDS — UNION  REVERSE  AT  CHICKAMAUGA — MERI- 
DIAN EXPEDITION  LED  BY  GENERAL  SHERMAN  —  WARFARE  IN 
MISSISSIPPI  AND  LOUISIANA  —  CONFEDERATES  THREATEN 
NATCHEZ — GENERAL  GRESHAM  COMMANDS  EXPEDITION  AGAINST 
FORT  ADAMS — DANGERS  OF  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  TRAVEL  —  THE 
MERIDIAN  EXPEDITION  —  THIRTEENTH  AMENDMENT  RATIFIED 
BY  SENATE,  BUT  OPPOSED  IN  THE  HOUSE — RE-ENLISTMENT  OF 
VETERANS. 

CHAPTER  XVIII— THE  ATLANTA  CAMPAIGN  .  .  .  .  294 
gresham  appointed  to  take  crocker's  command  —  battle 
of  kenesaw  mountain  —  a  soldier's  view  of  the  differ- 
ence between  grant  and  sherman  as  commanders  — 
gresham  wounded  at  atlanta  —  carried  to  new  albany 
— Mcpherson's  death — gresham  disabled  for  five  years. 

CHAPTER   XIX  —  NEGRO   SUFFRAGE 313 

general  gresham's  many  visitors — thirteenth  amend- 
ment submitted  to  states  for  ratification  —  eliminate 
slavery  without  compensation  —  lincoln  reconstructs 
louisiana  —  sumner  opposes  recognition  of  louisiana 
state  government — soldiers  opposed  to  negro  suffrage 
—  Sherman's  opposition  —  Lincoln's  assassination  — 
gresham  for  complete  amnesty — the  fourteenth  amend- 
ment to  the  constitution  —  soldier  vote  ratifies  it  — 
gresham  a  soldier  orator  —  candidate  for  congress  — 


CONTENTS  XXV11 

MORTON  AND  GRESHAM  OPPOSE  NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  —  GRESHAM 
DEFEATED  FOR  CONGRESS  BUT  ELECTED  STATE  AGENT  — 
MORTON  ELECTED  TO  SENATE — MORTON  VOTES  TO  INCORPORATE 
NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  INTO  RECONSTRUCTION  ACTS. 

CHAPTER  XX  — CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS  AND  DE- 
CLINES SENATORSHIP 341 

GRESHAM  RESUMES  PRACTICE  OF  LAW — AGAIN  DEFEATED  AS 
CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS  —  ADVOCATES  RATIFICATION  OF 
FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT  —  OPPOSES  THE  FIFTEENTH  AMEND- 
MENT— REFUSES  TO  BE  CANDIDATE  FOR  UNITED  STATES  SENA- 
TOR—  DECLINES  GRANT'S  OFFER  TO  BE  COLLECTOR  OF  PORT 
OF   NEW   ORLEANS. 

CHAPTER  XXI— UNITED  STATES  DISTRICT  JUDGE  .      .  34y 

APPOINTED  UNITED  STATES  DISTRICT  JUDGE  FOR  INDIANA  —  A 
BELIEVER  IN  ARBITRATION  OF  LEGAL  DISPUTES  —  EQUITY 
PROCEDURE  —  PATENT  CASES  —  THE  NATIONAL  BANKRUPTCY 
ACT  OF  1867 — UPHOLDS  TRIAL  BY  JURY  —  JUDGE  GRESHAM's 
METHODS   WITH  THE   JURY. 

CHAPTER  XXII— RAILROAD  RECEIVERSHIPS  ....   366 

MONON  ROAD  DIFFICULTIES  —  RAILWAY  MORTGAGES  UNLIKE 
OTHER  MORTGAGES  —  SUPREME  COURT  UPHOLDS  JUDGE  DRUM- 
mond's  ^CONCLUSION  AS  TO  RAILWAYS  BEING  PUBLIC  CON- 
CERNS—  LEGISLATION  CONCERNING  PUBLIC  SERVICE  CORPO- 
RATIONS. 

CHAPTER  XXIII— THE  GREAT  RAILROAD  STRIKE  OF  77  379 

CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  THE  STRIKE  —  REDUCTION  OF  WAGES 
OF  RAILROAD  EMPLOYEES  —  STRIKE  BEGINS  IN  WEST  VIRGINIA 
—  SPREADS  TO  PITTSBURGH  AND  INDIANAPOLIS — JUDGE  GRES- 
HAM PREPARES  TO  HANDLE  THE  SITUATION  —  APPOINTS  OLD 
SOLDIERS  UNITED  STATES  MARSHALS  TO  PROTECT  PROPERTY 
AND  MOVE  TRAINS  —  MILITARY  ORGANIZATION  EFFECTED  TO 
SUPPORT  MARSHALS — POWER  OF  FEDERAL  COURTS  CONSIDERED 
— ARREST  OF  STRIKERS  WHO  INTERFERED  WITH  MOVEMENT  OF 
TRAINS  ON  ROADS  OPERATED  BY  RECEIVERS. 

CHAPTER  XXIV— TRIALS  FOR  CONTEMPT  OF  COURT  .  402 

JUDGE  DRUMMOND  TAKES  UP  OHIO  &  MISSISSIPPI  LINE  CASES 
FIRST  —  THE  TERRE  HAUTE  CASES — CONTROVERSY  OVER  WAR- 
REN N.    SAYER  —  PUNISHMENT   OF   THE   STRIKERS. 


XXVlll  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    XXV  —  BURLINGTON    STRIKE  AND    DEBS'S 

REBELLION 409 

strike  voted  on  the  burlington  road  —  other  roads 
refuse  Burlington's  freight — receiver  of  wabash  com- 
pany INVOLVED — INTERPRETATION  OF  INTERSTATE  COMMERCE 
ACT  —  GENERAL  STRIKE  AVOIDED  —  AMENDMENT  OF  INTER- 
STATE COMMERCE  ACT — PULLMAN  STRIKE,  OR  "DEBS'S  REBEL- 
LION"—  INTERFERENCE  WITH  MAIL  TRAINS  —  CLEVELAND'S 
PROCLAMATION  AND  MILES'S  PROMPT  ACTION  SUPPRESS  DIS- 
ORDER. 

CHAPTER  XXVI— THE  GREENBACK  CONTENTION  IN 

INDIANA  POLITICS 420 

THE  MONEY  QUESTION  —  LEGAL  TENDER  DECISIONS  —  CONSTI- 
TUTIONALITY OF  GREENBACKS  —  WHAT  IS  MONEY? — PASSAGE 
OF  THE  "PUBLIC  DEBT  ACT" — DEMOCRATIC  VICTORY  OF  1 8 74 — 
HENRY  WATTERSON,  THOMAS  A.  HENDRICKS,  AND  DANIEL  W. 
VOORHEES — RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS  —  REISSUE  OF 
PAPER — DISCUSSION  OF  THE  LAST  LEGAL  TENDER  DECISION, 
THAT  OF    1884 — A  CABINET  DINNER  PARTY  IN  WASHINGTON. 

CHAPTER  XXVII  — "WHISKEY  RING"  TRIALS  ....   437 

BRISTOW  MADE  SECRETARY  OF  TREASURY — INTERNAL  REVENUE 
FRAUDS  — THE  " WHISKEY  RING"  —  GRESHAM  BREAKS  THE 
WHISKEY  MEN'S  DEFENSE  —  BREACH  WITH  GENERAL  HARRISON 

—  gresham's  PRINCIPLE  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONSTRUCTION 
NOT  APPROVED  BY  BENJAMIN  HARRISON  NOR  SUPREME  COURT 
— SUBSEQUENTLY  UPHELD — THE  COUNSELMAN  CASE — BROWN- 
LEE    TRIAL  —  GRESHAM'S    CLEMENCY. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII— THE  ELECTION  OF  1876 454 

GRESHAM   OFFERED   REPUBLICAN   NOMINATION   FOR    GOVERNOR 

—  CORRUPTION  IN  INTERIOR  AND  WAR  DEPARTMENTS  — 
JUDICIAL  POWER  OF  CONGRESS  —  GRESHAM  SUPPORTS  GEN- 
ERAL BRISTOW'S  CLAIMS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY  —  POLITICAL 
TACTICS  —  OPPOSED  TO  THE  USE  OF  BAYONETS  AT  SOUTHERN 
POLLS  —  THE    HAYES-TILDEN   CONTEST. 

CHAPTER  XXIX— REUNIONS  OF  ARMY  OF  THE   TEN- 
NESSEE     462 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  TENNES- 
SEE—  REUNIONS  AT  ST.  PAUL,  INDIANAPOLIS,  AND  CHICAGO  — 
CIVIL  AND  MILITARY  CELEBRITIES  IN  ATTENDANCE  —  GENERAL 
GRESHAM  DELIVERS  ANNUAL  ADDRESS   IN   1879 — ENUNCIATES 


CONTENTS  xxix 

CHAPTER  XXX  — ELECTION  FRAUD  CASES 472 

THE  ENFORCEMENT  ACTS — POLITICS  IN  THE  JURY  BOX — STATE 
ELECTION  CONSPIRACIES  —  CRIMES  AGAINST  POPULAR  GOVERN- 
MENT—  THE  CONSTITUTIONALITY  OF  ENFORCEMENT  ACTS  UP- 
HELD—  WAR  LEGISLATION  DID  NOT  DESTROY  THE  STATES  OR 
LOCAL  SELF-GOVERNMENT — THE  COY  AND   MACKIN  CASES. 

CHAPTER  XXXI— IN  PRESIDENT  ARTHUR'S  CABINET  .  489 

GRESHAM  APPOINTED  POSTMASTER-GENERAL  —  AGREEABLE 
NEIGHBORS  IN  WASHINGTON  —  EXCLUDES  LOUISIANA  LOTTERY 
FROM  UNITED  STATES  MAILS  —  SUIT  FOR  DAMAGES — ADVISES 
CONGRESS  TO  AMEND  ITS  LAWS — LOTTERY  SUPPRESSED — BLAINE 
AND  ARTHUR  RIVALS — OFFER  OF  BLAINE  TO  GRESHAM  DECLINED 
—  BLAINE  NOMINATED  BY  REPUBLICANS  —  GRESHAM  MADE 
SECRETARY  OF  TREASURY  —  CUSTOMS  DUTIES  —  WAR  TARIFF. 

CHAPTER  XXXII— ON  THE  BENCH  AGAIN   .      .      .  '  .       .504 

BECOMES  CIRCUIT  JUDGE  FOR  SEVENTH  DISTRICT  —  INTIMACY 
WITH  PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND — MELVILLE  W.  FULLER'S  APPOINT- 
MENT AS  CHIEF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT  —  CORDIAL 
RELATIONS  OF  HARLAN  AND  GRESHAM — THE  SUPREME  COURT'S 
IGNORANCE  OF  PATENT  LITIGATION — THE  LAWTHER-HAMILTON 
CASE. 

CHAPTER  XXXIII— THE  PULLMAN   PALACE  CAR  PAT- 
ENT CASES 518 

THE  SESSIONS  IMPROVEMENT  IN  THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  RAIL- 
ROAD CARS  —  ADOPTED  BY  THE  PULLMAN  COMPANY  —  THE 
PULLMAN  COMPANY  ENJOINS  THE  WAGNER  COMPANY  FROM 
USING  THE  SESSIONS  IMPROVEMENT — HEARING  BEFORE  JUDGES 
GRESHAM  AND  BLODGETT — PULLMAN  COMPANY  SUES  VARIOUS 
RAILROADS — GRESHAM'S  FAMOUS  OPINION — CONSOLIDATION  OF 
THE  PULLMAN  AND  WAGNER  COMPANIES. 

CHAPTER  XXXIV  — IS  "EQUITY  A  ROGUISH  THING?"  .   530 

THE  CELEBRATED  ANGLE  CASE — H.  C.  ANGLE  UNDERTAKES  TO 
CONSTRUCT  THE  ST.  CROIX  RAILROAD  FOR  THE  PORTAGE  COM- 
PANY— PLEDGES  HIS  PROPERTY  TO  CARRY  OUT  HIS  CONTRACT  — 
THE  OMAHA  AND  ST.  PAUL  RAILROAD  COMPANIES  COVET  THE 
RICH  TIMBER  LANDS  GRANTED  TO  THE  PORTAGE  COMPANY  BY 
THE  GOVERNMENT  —  SENATOR  SPOONER's  VICIOUS  ADVICE  TO 
THE  OMAHA  COMPANY  —  THE  ST.  PAUL  RAILROAD  SUES  THE 
OMAHA  COMPANY  FOR  ITS   SHARE   OF  THE   ST.   CROIX  LANDS  — 


/ 


XXX  CONTENTS 

ACTION  OF  THE  WISCONSIN  LEGISLATURE  IN  THE  MATTER  — 
ANGLE'S  WIDOW  SUES  THE  PORTAGE  COMPANY  BEFORE  JUDGE 
GRESHAM  —  WINS  THE  SUIT  WHICH  IS  RETRIED  BY  JUSTICE 
HARLAN — HIS  DECISION. 

CHAPTER  XXXV— THE  WABASH  CASE 550 

ITS  EFFECT  ON  INTERSTATE  COMMERCE  LAW  —  JAY  GOULD'S 
WRECKING  SCHEMES — REMOVAL  OF  RECEIVERS  OF  THE  WABASH 
RAILROAD  —  WABASH  DECISION  MAKES  A  GREAT  STIR  —  RE- 
BATES, PREFERENCES,  AND  DISCRIMINATIONS  PUT  UNDER  BAN 
OF   STATUTE   LAW. 

CHAPTER  XXXVI— EVENTS  PRIOR  TO  '88  CONVENTION  561 

BLAINE  AGAIN  CANDIDATE  FOR  PRESIDENT  —  REDUCING  THE 
TREASURY  SURPLUS  —  CLEVELAND'S  TARIFF  MESSAGE— EDITOR 
JOSEPH  MEDILL'S  POSITION  ON  THE  TARIFF  —  BLAINE  WITH- 
DRAWS AS  CANDIDATE  —  GRESHAM  BOOM  —  JUDGE  GRESHAM 
REFUSES  TO  MAKE  TERMS  WITH  PLATT  AND  QUAY  —  PLAIT'S 
POWER   IN  THE    CONVENTION. 

CHAPTER    XXXVII  — THE    REPUBLICAN    CONVENTION 

OF  1888 584 

CONTEST  FOR  TEMPORARY  CHAIRMAN — MR.  THURSTON  ELECTED 

—  ESTEE  MADE  PERMANENT  CHAIRMAN  —  JUDGE  GRESHAM 
DISLIKES  PLATFORM  ADOPTED  —  "TIN  BUCKET"  PARADE  FOR 
GRESHAM  —  LEONARD  SWETT  PRESENTS  GRESHAM'S  NAME  TO 
THE  CONVENTION  —  INGERSOLL'S  SPEECH  FOR  GRESHAM  — 
OTHER  NAMES  PRESENTED  —  PLATT  "DEMONSTRATES  HIS 
POWER"  —  QUAY  ELECTED  CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  NATIONAL  COM- 
MITTEE—  HARRISON'S  STRENGTH  —  GENERAL  HARRISON  NOMI- 
NATED. 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII— THE  " BLOCKS  OF  FIVE"  CASE  .      .   602 
Harrison's  campaign  for  votes  —  Dudley's  "  blocks  of 
five"  letter  —  need  for  reform  of  election  laws  — 
blaine  made   secretary  of   state  —  friction  with  the 
president — Dudley's  threats  to  expose  campaign  secrets 

—  reasons  why  he  was  not  indicted  —  claypool  made 
district  attorney — he  soon  resigns — criticism  of  judge 
woods — legislation  repealed. 

CHAPTER  XXXIX— THE  WABASH  CASE  AGAIN      ...   619 

HARRISON  ASKED  TO  APPOINT  GRESHAM  TO  VACANCY  ON  THE 
SUPREME  BENCH  —  REFUSES  TO  MAKE  THE  APPOINTMENT  — 


CONTENTS  XXXI 

DAWN  OF  "POPULIST"  PARTY — JUDGE  BREWER  MADE  A 
JUSTICE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT  —  THE  "NARROW  GAUGE" 
CASE  —  JUDGE  GRESHAM'S  DECISION  REVERSED  BY  JUSTICE 
BREWER  —  THE  PEOPLE'S  PARTY  FORMALLY  ORGANIZED  — 
VICTORIOUS  IN  FIRST  STATE  ELECTION  —  SENDS  "SOCKLESS 
JERRY"  SIMPSON  TO  CONGRESS  —  THE  CHICAGO  AND  ATLAN- 
TIC   CASE. 

CHAPTER  XL— SHERMAN    ACT    AND    McKINLEY    BILL  632 

THE  SHERMAN  ANTI-TRUST  ACT — THE  CASE  OF  RICHARDSON  VS. 
ALGER  —  THE  SHERMAN  SILVER  BILL  —  THE  MCKINLEY  BILL  — 
THE    WHISKEY    TRUST  —  THE    " INFERNAL    MACHINE"    PLOT  — 

—  POST  OFFICE  INSPECTOR  JAMES  E.  STEWART  —  WHY  THE 
PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WHISKEY  TRUST  FAILED  —  THE  SUGAR 
TRUST   CASE  —  OTHER  PROSECUTIONS. 

CHAPTER  XLI— JUDGE   GRESHAM'S   VIEWS   ON   POPU- 
LAR GOVERNMENT 655 

SPEECH  AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  THE  GRANT  MONUMENT,  CHICAGO 

—  POLITICS  AND  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  TIMES  DENOUNCED  — 
BANQUET  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  TENNESSEE — 
NOTED  SPEAKERS — PLAN  TO  DEFEAT  HARRISON'S  RENOMINA- 
TION — PEOPLE'S  PARTY  WANT  GRESHAM  AS  A  CANDIDATE  FOR 
PRESIDENT — HE   DECLINES. 

CHAPTER  XLII  — DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION  OF  1892    .  664 

GROVER  CLEVELAND  NOMINATED  FOR  PRESIDENT  —  THE  PLAT- 
FORM— THE  TARIFF  "  PLANK  "  CAUSES  MAJORITY  AND  MINORITY 
REPORTS — THE  MINORITY  REPORT  ADOPTED  AS  THE  PLATFORM. 

CHAPTER  XLIII  —  SECRETARY  OF  STATE 669 

GRESHAM  VOTES  FOR  CLEVELAND  —  AGREES  WITH  HIM  ON 
TARIFF — CRAWFORD  FAIRBANKS  ASSEMBLES  COMPETING  MANU- 
FACTURING PLANTS  —  GRESHAM  PUBLICLY  STATES  POLITICAL 
POSITION — DEMOCRATIC  COMMITTEE  AND  PEOPLE'S  PARTY  GET 
IN  TOUCH — CLEVELAND  ELECTED — FINANCIAL  PANIC — CLEVE- 
LAND OFFERS  GRESHAM  SECRETARYSHIP  OF  STATE  —  GRESHAM 
DECLINES,  THEN  ACCEPTS  —  CONFERENCE  AT  LAKEWOOD  — 
POPULARITY   WITH   SOUTHERNERS. 

CHAPTER  XLIV— CABINET  LIFE  IN  CLEVELAND'S  SEC- 
OND ADMINISTRATION "...  688 

MR.  GRESHAM  WARMLY  WELCOMED  IN  WASHINGTON — MATTERS 
OF    PRECEDENCE  —  MRS.     CLEVELAND'S    INFORMALITY  —  THE 


7 


V 


xxxii  CONTENTS 

NATION'S  ROYAL  SPANISH  GUESTS  —  DELIGHTFUL  RELATIONS 
WITH  DIPLOMATS  AND  THEIR  WIVES  —  RIVALRY  BETWEEN 
FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  MINISTERS  — CHINESE  MINISTER'S  WIFE 
APPEARS  IN  PUBLIC  —  MR.   CLEVELAND   OPENS   WORLD'S   FAIR. 

CHAPTER  XLV— SILVER  AND  THE  TARIFF 701 

REPEAL  OF  SHERMAN  SILVER  ACT — VOLNEY  T.  MALOTT,  INDI- 
ANAPOLIS BANKER,  URGES  PRESERVATION  OF  INTEGRITY  OF 
THE  TREASURY  —  CONGRESS  PROVIDES  FOR  COINAGE  OF  NINE 
MILLION  DOLLARS  OF  SILVER  BULLION  IN  TREASURY  —  BRYAN 
MAKES  BRILLIANT  DECORATION  DAY  ADDRESS  —  DEMOCRATIC 
NATIONAL  CONVENTION  AT  CHICAGO — BRYAN'S  GREAT  SILVER 
SPEECH  —  CLEVELAND  AUTHORIZES  SALE  OF  UNITED  STATES 
BONDS  TO  REPLENISH  THE  GOLD  RESERVE  —  WILSON-GORMAN 
TARIFF    ACT. 

CHAPTER  XLVI  — BERING  SEA  ARBITRATION  .      .      .      .717 

FUR  SEAL  RIGHTS  ON  PRIBILOF  ISLANDS — BLAINE  AND  HARRISON 
NOT  IN  ACCORD  —  MR.  BAYARD'S  WISE  COURSE  OF  ACTION  — 
NEUTRAL  ARBITRATORS  DECIDE  THE  BERING  SEA  CASE  —  THE 
UNITED  STATES  DEFEATED  —  SECRETARY  GRESHAM  TAKES 
STEPS   TO    GET   RID    OF   THE    PARIS   TRIBUNAL    REGULATIONS. 

CHAPTER  XLVII  — HAWAII 738 

HOUSE  BILL  PASSED  REPEALING  ENFORCEMENT  ACTS  AND  OTHER 
FEDERAL  STATUTES — REVOLT  IN  HAWAII — INTERFERENCE  WITH 
NATIVE  GOVERNMENT  PROHIBITED  —  ANNEXATION  TREATY 
TRANSMITTED  AND  WITHDRAWN  —  QUEEN  REFUSES  CONDI- 
TIONAL RESTORATION — FINALLY  ACCEDES  TO  AMNESTY  —  CON- 
DEMNATION OF  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT — UNITED  STATES 
,  ADOPTS  POLICY  OF  NON-INTERVENTION  —  GRESHAM's  STATES- 
MANSHIP—  FIRST  TO  STAND  FOR  THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  LITTLE 
NATION. 

CHAPTER  XLVIII  — BRAZIL,  NICARAGUA,  AND  CUBA  .  777 
insurrection  in  brazil  —  naval  revolt  —  united  states 
intervenes — monarchy  prevented  —  great  britain  with- 
draws pretensions  to  sovereignty  in  nicaragua  — 
revolution  in  the  mosquito  strip  against  nicaraguan 
authority  —  united  states  enforces  payment  of  great 
Britain's  claims  upon  Nicaragua— investigation  of  Vene- 
zuelan QUESTION  —  SPANISH  GUNBOAT  FIRES  ON  UNITED 
STATES  MAIL  SHIP  OFF  CUBA  —  SPAIN  APOLOGIZES  —  CHINESE- 
JAPANESE    WAR. 


CONTENTS                                        XXXlll 
CHAPTER  XLIX  — THE   END 790 

LAST  ILLNESS  AND  DEATH  —  INTERMENT  IN  ARLINGTON  CEME- 
TERY —  DISPOSITION  OF  STATE  MATTERS  PENDING  —  SETTLE- 
MENT OF  THE  VENEZUELAN  CONTROVERSY  FOLLOWS  LINES  LAID 
DOWN  BY  SECRETARY  GRESHAM — HIS  POLITICAL  CONVICTIONS — 
OPPOSED  TO  IMPERIALISM  AND  ITS  ACCOMPANIMENT,  WAR  — 
NOT  A  NON-RESISTANT  —  FIRST  TO  STAND  FOR  THE  RIGHTS  OF 
THE  LITTLE  NATION — BELIEVED  JUSTICE  THE  END  AND  AIM  OF 
GOVERNMENT  —  LIFE   PLANS   ENDED   BY  HIS  DEATH. 

APPENDICES 818 

INDEX 841 


LIFE    OF 

WALTER  QUINTIN  GRESHAM 

1832—1895 


VOLUME  I 


CHAPTER  I 
BIRTH,  ANCESTRY,  AND  EARLY  YEARS 


mrs.  gresham  s  birth  and  ancestry  —  conditions  in 
kentucky  in  the  '40's  and  '50's  —  her  father's  religion 
and  politics  —  meets  walter  q.  gresham,  a  law  stu- 
dent at  corydon  —  his  birth  and  ancestry  —  account 
of  ''old  uncle  dennis"  pennington,  one  of  indiana's 
first  settlers  and  foremost  anti-slavery  men  — 
Pennington's  long  legislative  career  —  change  of 
Indiana's  capital  from  vincennes  to  corydon  —  Har- 
rison    COUNTY'S     FIRST     SETTLER,     MAJOR    JOHN     HARBISON 

—  rescue  of  Harbison's  stepchildren  from  the 
indians  —  gresham's  school  days,  study  of  law  and 
admission  to  the  bar  —  his  partnership  with  t.  c. 
slaughter — early    practice. 

['  WAS  born  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  February  n,  1839. 
*  Thomas  McGrain,  my  father,  was  a  native  of  Dublin, 
Ireland.  After  the  execution  of  Robert  Emmet,  my  grand- 
father kept  up  his  opposition  to  the  British  government 
until  he  learned  that  if  he  would  escape  prosecution,  and 
perhaps  the  fate  of  his  leader,  he  must  leave  his  native  land, 
so  he  fled  to  America.     He  brought  with  him  his  two  sons 

—  Thomas,  my  father,  then  seven,  and  James,  two  years 
younger  —  and  settled  at  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania.  It  was 
planned  that  my  grandmother,  Catherine  Bacon  McGrain, 


2         LIF]E,   OF    W4LTE.R    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  the  two  daughters,  Eliza  and  Marie,  who  were  older 
than  the  boys,  should  follow  when  a  home  had  been  pre- 
pared. But  they  never  came.  Instead,  on  the  death  of 
my  grandfather,  which  occurred  a  few  years  after  his 
arrival  in  Pittsburgh,  they  accepted  the  invitation  of  my 
grandmother's  only  brother,  Major  Matthew  Bacon,  an 
unmarried  man,  to  make  their  home  with  him  in  Dublin. 

Matthew  Bacon  had  entered  the  British  army  in  early 
youth  as  an  ensign,  served  his  crown  loyally  through  many 
grades,  mostly  in  India,  until  retired  as  a  major,  and  then 
lived  to  a  ripe  old  age.  He  died  in  1867,  at  No.  3  Hume 
Street,  Dublin,  surviving  his  sister  and  nieces.  After  their 
death  my  Uncle  Matthew  wrote,  in  1862,  that  while  he  would 
liberally  remember  his  church  (the  Roman  Catholic),  he 
did  not  propose  to  leave  it  his  all,  and  he  wanted  my  sister, 
Lyde,  to  come  and  cheer  his  declining  days.  She  went  to 
Dublin,  lived  with  him  until  he  died,  and  then  remained 
there.  My  father  said  he  was  glad  to  have  my  sister  go 
because  it  closed  the  family  breach  that  had  existed  since 
Emmet's  time.  Matthew  Bacon's  sympathies,  like  those 
of  many  British  subjects,  whether  Englishmen  or  Irish, 
during  our  family  quarrel,  as  I  prefer  to  call  ' '  The  War  of 
the  Rebellion"  or  "The  War  between  the  States,"  went  with 
the  American  government,  and  he  was  much  gratified  that 
my  husband  went  into  the  "Yankee"  army.  Thus  he  ran 
counter  not  only  to  the  views  of  his  government,  but  also 
to  the  views  of  his  nephew,  my  father,  and  of  his  grand- 
niece.  I  early  learned  that  we  should  be  tolerant  of  the 
opinions  of  others  and  that  political  views  never  should, 
as  they  too  often  do,  mar  social  relations. 

My  grandfather  left  some  money  to  his  two  sons,  which 
their  guardian  appropriated  to  his  own  use.  That  inbred 
Irish  spirit  of  revolt  and  his  strong  trait  of  self-reliance 
prompted  my  father,  while  yet  in  his  early  teens,  to  lead  his 
brother  from  the  guardian's  home.  They  went  to  work  for 
a  tinner,  the  first  opening  that  presented  itself.     They  soon 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS       3 

learned  the  trade,  and  before  his  majority  my  father  had  a 
shop  of  his  own.  He  prospered,  and  in  due  time  married 
Matilda  Reed,  the  daughter  of  a  Presbyterian  minister  from 
the  north  of  Ireland.  From  Pittsburgh,  with  his  young 
wife,  he  moved  to  Frankfort,  Kentucky,  where  he  estab- 
lished a  tin  and  hardware  store.  His  business  prospered  at 
Frankfort,  but  he  wanted  a  Wger  field,  so  he  moved  to 
Louisville,  where  he  built  a  foundry  for  the  manufacture  of 
stoves.  The  Louisville  venture  succeeded  from  the  start. 
We  first  lived  on  Second  Street,  in  the  house  still  standing 
next  to  Christ  Church  on  the  north.  It  was  there  I  was 
born. 

My  father  was  born  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  had  become 
a  Methodist.  Later  on  he  became  a  Presbyterian,  through 
the  influence  of  my  maternal  grandmother,  Jane  Gray,  who 
lived  with  us.  But  with  all  my  father's  changes  of  religion, 
he  never  entirely  lost  his  predilection  for  and  connection 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  Every  Christmas  he 
gave  a  present  to  all  the  Catholic  orphans  in  town.  For  a 
time  he  sent  several  of  my  sisters  and  myself  to  a  Roman 
Catholic  convent  at  Bards  town,  Kentucky. 

One  day  my  father  brought  home  with  him,  from  the 
Catholic  orphan  asylum,  a  boy  named  Daniel  G.  Griffin, 
who  had  come  to  work  in  the  store.  His  parents  were  Irish 
immigrants,  who  had  settled  for  a  time  in  Nova  Scotia,  but 
died  soon  after  they  reached  Louisville.  I  remember  my 
mother  saying,  "We  have  eight  children  now;  don't  you 
think  we  have  enough  without  adopting  others?"  His 
answer  was  Irish:  "But,  my  dear,  I  was  an  orphan  once 
myself."  That  settled  it.  Dan  was  received  into  the 
family,  educated  with  the  rest  of  us,  and  sent  to  the  Ken- 
tucky Military  Institute  along  with  my  brother  Tom. 
The  only  time  he  ever  crossed  my  father  was  when  he 
"went  in"  as  Adjutant  of  the  38th  Indiana  Volunteers. 
Before  his  death  and  before  the  close  of  the  war,  he  was  a 
brevet  brigadier  general  of  volunteers. 


4         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

v  While  my  father  was  a  pro-slavery  man,  he  was  not,  at 

least  at  the  start,  wedded  to  the  system.  He  early  took  to 
other  kinds  of  property  than  the  few  slaves  he  owned.  I 
only  remember  Horace,  the  porter  in  the  store,  and  a  few 
household  servants  — Winnie  Johnson,  the  cook,  her  son, 
Booze,  and  a  couple  of  maid  servants.  I  called  Winn 
''Mammy."  She  was  always  my  friend,  and  made  me  the 
confidant  of  all  her  secrets,  except  who  was  Booze's  father. 
My  mother  with  her  Pennsylvania  training  never  could 
comprehend  the  negro  character,  and  was  not  unlike  many 
a  woman  who  had  even  been  reared  among  them,  no  match 
for  them  in  finesse. 

In  politics  my  father  was  a  Whig  and  a  great  admirer  of 
Henry  Clay.  On  the  occasion  of  one  of  Mr.  Clay's  visits 
to  Louisville  —  it  was  before  1850  —  my  father  took  my 
eldest  brother,  one  of  my  sisters,  and  myself  to  a  reception 
at  the  Louisville  Hotel  to  see  him.  I  still  remember  how 
gracious  Mr.  Clay  was  to  me,  a  small  girl.  When  the  Whig 
party  broke  up  and  the  American  or  Know-Nothing  party 
took  its  place  in  Kentucky,  my  father  became  a  Democrat, 
and  later,  after  the  assaults  of  the  Abolitionists,  an  extreme 
pro-slavery  man  and  Secessionist. 

One  summer  we  occupied  the  country  place  of  General, 
afterwards  President,  Zachary  Taylor,  a  few  miles  east  of 
Louisville  on  the  Ohio  River.  It  was  considered  an  old  place 
even  then.  It  was  built  in  1790  by  Richard  Taylor,  a  Vir- 
ginian by  birth,  one  of  Kentucky's  early  leading  citizens  and 
the  father  of  Zachary  Taylor.     It  still  stands  well  preserved. 

There  was  a  path  the  darkies  had,  near  to  and  up  and 
down  the  river,  with  by-paths  which  they  traveled  at  night 
from  one  place  to  another.  The  whole  family,  including 
the  darkies,  lived  well.  My  father's  business  often  took  him 
to  New  Orleans.  He  sent  us  thence  oysters  by  the  barrel, 
bananas  by  the  bunch,  and  venison  by  the  quarter.  Many 
were  the  midnight  suppers  old  Winn  had  in  the  kitchen. 
While  my  father  was  a  most  liberal  provider,  he  insisted 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS        5 

on  young  girls  eating  light  suppers.  Often  I  would  get  up 
in  the  night  and  partake  of  Winn's  spread.  "Just  starvin' 
the  chilun  to  death,"  she  would  say.  And  then  when  I 
would  not  want  to  get  up  in  the  morning  and  could  eat 
nothing,  my  father  was  sure  I  had  eaten  too  much  supper. 
But  he  never  knew  about  the  second  supper.  Old  Winn 
was  an  excellent  cook  but  never  had  a  recipe.  After  I  was 
grown  I  asked  her  for  one.  Her  answer  was,  "I  ain't  got 
no  receipt."  "How  do  you  cook  without  a  recipe?"  I 
inquired.  "I  jest  makes  things  accordin'  to  what  I'se  got," 
was  her  reply.  We  liked  the  Taylor  place  so  well  we  stayed 
there  a  year.  I  remember  that  at  Christmas  I  saw  and 
enjoyed  eggnog  for  the  first  time. 

The  taste  for  country  life  thus  acquired  led  my  father, 
on  October  10,  1849,  to  trade  with  Colonel  Peter  Kintner 
for  the  Cedar  Glade  Farm,  near  Corydon,  Indiana.  A  store 
on  Main  Street  in  Louisville  was  given  for  the  farm.  Of 
course,  the  Colonel  got  the  better  of  the  bargain.  He  was 
able  to  live  in  ease  in  Paris  on  the  rental  of  the  store,  which 
enhanced  in  value  as  the  years  went  by,  while  we  lived  in 
Louisville  and  on  the  farm,  and  kept  open  house  at  both 
places. 

By  the  middle  of  the  '50's  we  gave  up  our  Louisville 
residence,  but  my  father  continued  in  business  there  until 
1862.  My  father  was  not  a  sharp  trader;  he  never  made 
money  that  way.  He  was  an  easy  master.  He  made  it 
possible  for  Horace  to  buy  his  freedom.  Horace  was  an 
educated  darkey,  and  the  superintendent  of  a  colored  Sun- 
day school  in  Louisville.  Before  his  freedom  I  often  went 
with  him  to  teach  a  class  of  eight  little  mulatto  girls, 
pretty  and  almost  white.  Several  were  the  daughters  of 
their  masters. 

There  was  not  much  severity  or  physical  cruelty  visited 
on  the  slaves  in  Louisville  or  in  that  part  of  Kentucky  with 
which  I  was  familiar.  The  fear  of  being  sold  down  the  river 
was  a  great  deterrent  influence  on  the  slave,  and  public 


6         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

opinion  had  its  restraining  influence  on  the  master.  A 
sale  "down  the  river"  always  created  a  great  commotion 
among  the  slaves  and  the  children.  The  slaves  never  pro- 
tested to  the  masters,  but  the  latter  always  heard  of  it,  for 
the  white  children  never  failed  to  carry  the  statements  made 
by  the  slaves  to  the  elders,  would  ask  questions,  and  avow 
their  sympathy  in  terms  that  hurt  more  than  the  assaults 
of  the  Abolitionists,  who,  we  were  taught,  were  fiends 
incarnate. 

Winnie,  our  cook,  and  her  son  Booze  went  with  us  to 
Indiana.  The  boy  remained  there  and  thus  secured  his 
freedom.  While  Winnie  was  in  Indiana  she  was  free,  but 
a  slave  when  she  returned  with  us  to  Kentucky  —  a  status 
that  illustrates  the  Dred  Scott  case.  But  Winnie  was  only 
a  nominal  slave;  when  she  tired  of  Cory  don  she  would  go 
to  Louisville.  She  died  there  shortly  before  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war.  One  day,  when  he  was  making  a  fire,  Booze 
showed  me  the  inside  of  his  hand  and  said:  "See,  Miss 
Tillie,  I'se  getting  white.  I  '11  be  white  same  as  you  when  I 
gets  to  heaven."  Flint  indeed  would  have  been  the  heart 
that  would  not  have  been  touched  by  such  a  plaint!  And 
the  generous  sentiments  of  the  child  were  reflected  in  the 
utterances  of  the  early  Southern  jurists. 

The  Massachusetts  Abolitionists  like  Wendell  Phillips 
were  not  the  only  men  who  at  that  time  realized  that  slavery 
was  a  mistake  from  an  economic  standpoint.  My  father 
saw  it,  and  it  was  partly  to  get  away  from  slavery  that  he 
bought  his  Indiana  farm;  and  yet  he  became  a  violent 
Secessionist.  There  were  men  in  Kentucky  who  had  in- 
herited slaves,  but  who,  aside  from  the  question  of  morals, 
preferred  other  kinds  of  property  because  they  regarded  it 
as  more  profitable  and  safer.  They  converted  their  market- 
able darkies  into  other  property.  The  movement  down  the 
river  was  narrowing  slave  property.  And  in  the  Cotton 
States  the  negroes  were  as  well  cared  for  as  in  Kentucky. 
They  were  too  valuable  animals  not  to  have  the  best  of 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS        7 

medical  attention.  The  aged  and  infirm  the  Kentuckians 
could  not  sell,  and  they  could  not  emancipate  them  without 
giving  a  bond  that  they  would  not  become  public  charges. 
The  bond  involved  liabilities  that  young  men  did  not  like 
to  incur.  They  coined  the  expression  " nigger  man,"  which 
they  applied  to  the  man  who  owned  large  numbers  of 
slaves.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  large  slaveholders  out- 
side of  South  Carolina  were  not  Secessionists.  They  called 
themselves  Cooperationists.  "Cooperate  and  compromise," 
was  their  platform.1 

October  12,  1832,  Mississippi  prohibited,  after  May  1, 
1833,  the  importation  of  slaves  to  be  sold  as  merchandise, 
and  after  January  1,  1845,  even  actual  settlers  could  no 
longer  bring  their  slaves  with  them  into  the  State.  But  the 
1 '  unconditional  and  immediate  emancipation ' '  of  the  Aboli- 
tionist platform  terrified  them,  and  so  "riled"  the  hotheads 
that  Beauregard  fired  on  the  flag  at  Sumter  before  Jefferson 
Davis  gave  the  word.  I  believe  Mr.  Davis  did  not  want 
that  shot  fired.  Recognized  as  one  of  the  most  capable 
military  men  of  the  South,  the  little  Frenchman  never 
afterwards  was  a  favorite  of  the  President  of  the  Confed- 
erate States  of  America.  The  bombardment  of  Fort  Sum- 
ter illustrates  the  folly  of  leaving  to  the  discretion  of  a  mere 
military  man  the  decision  as  to  whether  or  not  a  nation 
shall  be  plunged  into  war.  Since  the  war  many  a  Southern 
man  and  woman,  in  the  privacy  of  the  home,  has  made 
this  criticism  of  Jefferson  Davis.  At  times  he  left  too  much 
discretion  to  subordinates,  at  others  not  enough.  Over  and 
over  I  have  heard  them  say  that  that  shot  at  Sumter  was  a 
mistake.  Surely  a  whole  people  should  not  be  punished 
for  the  mistakes  of  a  few  leaders. 

While  I  was  a  school  girl  at  Cory  don,  fourteen  years  of 
age,  I  met  a  young  law  student,  Walter  Quintin  Gresham. 
It  was  at  a  party.  I  was  the  "little  girl  in  a  red  dress" 
chaperoned  by  two  older  sisters.  Not  yet  twenty-one,  tall, 
handsome,  and  always  well  dressed,  his  antecedents  and  his 

iSee  page  141;  also  page  254. 


8         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

character  came  under  the  closest  scrutiny  of  my  family. 
He  was  the  pupil  of  Judge  William  A.  Porter.  After  the 
fashion  of  many  of  the  lawyers  of  that  time,  Judge  Porter 
had  his  office  in  the  same  yard  or  enclosure  within  which 
stood  the  residence,  a  handsome  brick  dwelling.  The  law 
office  in  one  corner  of  the  lot  was  one  story  of  two  rooms 
with  bookcases  extending  from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling  on 
all  the  walls,  and  filled  to  overflowing  with  text  books  and 
reports.  It  stood  under  a  great  elm  tree  with  its  front  door 
opening  into  the  street. 

Colonel  William  Gresham,  the  father  of  Walter  Q. 
Gresham,  was  born  in  Mercer  County,  Kentucky,  Septem- 
ber 17,  1802.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  George  Gresham, 
who  was  born  near  Petersburg,  Virginia,  October  9,  1776. 
Lawrence  Gresham,  the  father  of  George,  was  born  in 
England.  In  1759,  when  a  small  boy,  Lawrence  was  sent 
to  Virginia  to  live  with  his  uncle — "indentured,"  it  was 
called.  After  securing  his  "freedom"  at  his  majority, 
Lawrence  served  for  a  time  in  the  ranks  of  the  Continental 
army.  While  yet  a  young  man,  George  Gresham  joined 
the  stream  of  emigrants  pouring  into  Kentucky.  He 
"carried  along"  with  him  his  father,  Lawrence,  then  in  fee- 
ble health,  and  his  mother.  In  180 1,  in  Mercer  County,  Ken- 
tucky, George  Gresham  married  Mary  Pennington,  the  only 
sister  of  Dennis  Pennington,  who  was  foremost  in  shaping 
the  constitutional  and  public  policy  of  Indiana,  and  who 
was  the  first  counselor  and  adviser  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham. 
And  safe  and  sane  ' '  Old  Uncle  Dennis ' '  proved  himself  to  be. 

In  1809  George  Gresham  moved  his  family,  and  entered 
land  in  Harrison  County,  Indiana,  where  the  hamlet  of 
Lanesville  is  now  located.  He  gave  ground  for  the  churches 
and  graveyards.  In  one  of  these  cemeteries  there  are  bur- 
ied Lawrence,  George,  and  William  Gresham,  representing 
three  generations,  and  representatives  of  several  subsequent 
generations. 

The  mother  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  Sarah  Davis,  was 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS       9 

born  near  Springfield,  Washington  County,  Kentucky,  Sep- 
tember 15,  1807.  Her  father,  John  Davis,  a  native  of 
Virginia,  was  of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  and  while  yet  a  boy 
was  brought  by  his  father,  Edward  Davis,  with  the  balance 
of  the  family,  from  Virginia  to  Mercer  County,  Kentucky. 
There  were  five  hundred  in  the  company  including  the 
slaves.  John  Davis  married,  in  Mercer  County,  Kentucky, 
Sally  Sitz,  a  woman  of  Welsh  parentage.  In  181 5  he  moved 
to  Harrison  County,  Indiana,  taking  with  him  the  minor 
children  of  his  large  family  of  ten  sons  and  six  daughters. 
Of  the  sixteen,  fourteen  lived  to  be  three  score  and  ten  and 
several  past  ninety,  and  all  reared  large  families.  Sarah, 
one  of  the  youngest,  whose  statements  were  the  basis  of 
many  assertions  in  this  volume,  was  but  five  months  short 
of  one  hundred  when  she  died. 

November  3,  1825,  William  Gresham  married  Sarah 
Davis.  They  went  to  live  in  a  log  cabin  on  land  his  father 
had  entered,  within  a  mile  of  the  father's  house.  On  this 
spot  Sarah  lived  eighty-one  years. 

William  Gresham  was  elected  by  popular  vote  a  colonel 
in  the  State  militia,  and  in  1833,  although  a  Whig,  was 
almost  unanimously  elected  sheriff  of  Harrison  County. 
January  26,  1834,  he  was  stabbed  and  instantly  killed  while 
aiding  a  constable  to  arrest  a  desperado  named  Levi  Sipes. 

There  survived  William  Gresham,  his  widow,  Benjamin 
Q.  A.  Gresham,  two  daughters,  Mary  Andremead  and  Sadie, 
and  two  younger  sons,  Walter  Quintin,  born  March  17,  1832, 
and  William  G.,  born  July  30,  1833. 

Sarah  Gresham  had  anti-slavery  views  as  strong  as  any 
Abolitionist's.  She  told  her  boys  stories  of  the  evils  of  slavery. 
She  often  dwelt  on  the  fact  that  she  and  her  sister  had 
told  ' '  Uncle  Anthony ' '  in  Kentucky  that  it  was  a  sin  to  sell 
Madge  down  the  river  from  her  baby.  She  took  pride  in 
the  fact  that  her  father  moved  to  Indiana  Territory  because 
Kentucky  was  a  Slave  State,  and  she  was-fond  of  telling  how, 
when  a  very  young  man,  he  refused  as  a  gift  from  his  father 


w 


\S 


io       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

a  strong  young  negro  to  help  him  in  his  farming.  She  was 
wont  to  say,  "Slavery  is  a  sin."  But  she  could  and  did 
"separate  the  sinner  from  the  sin,"  for  she  was  tolerant,  and 
instead  of  envying  the  Southern  women  their  negroes,  she 
pitied  them.  With  but  a  few  years'  schooling  in  Kentucky 
and  Indiana  Territory,  and  none  of  the  advantages  of  travel, 
she  had  a  facility,  directness,  and  force  in  expressing  her 
views  seldom  excelled.  And  what  is  difficult  for  most 
women,  she  could  listen  until  it  was  her  turn  to  talk. 

In  one  respect  only  did  the  boys  give  the  mother  anxiety. 
It  was  right  for  them  to  go  out  to  battle  for  the  Union, — or, 
as  she  saw  it,  to  free  the  slaves  —  but  she  interdicted  their 
going  to  the  Ohio  River  to  swim.  In  this  she  could  not  con- 
trol them.  It  was  four  miles  to  the  river,  through  rugged, 
hilly  country  called*" The  Knobs,"  but  as  elevating  to  the 
imagination  as  the  mountains  of  Switzerland.  The  boys 
grew  rapidly,  and  were  large  and  powerful  for  their  ages. 
Each  had  a  horse,  a  hunting  dog,  and  a  gun,  and  early 
developed  into  good  marksmen.  They  were  favorites  and 
natural  leaders.  At  sixteen  Ben  was  stronger  than  any  man 
in  the  entire  neighborhood,  and  possessed  physical  and 
moral  courage  of  the  highest  order.  As  the  two  younger 
boys  developed,  they  were  only  behind  Ben,  of  all  the  men 
in  the  neighborhood,  in  physical  prowess. 

As  the  Gresham  boys  grew  up,  they  conducted  the  farm 
and  went  to  school  in  a  log  schoolhouse  that  stood  in  the 
Gresham  woods.  Walter  was  the  student  of  the  three,  and 
was  the  image  of  his  father.  He  studied  botany  in  the 
fields.  He  knew  every  tree,  flower,  and  shrub,  and  spear  of 
grass,  their  seeds,  and  how  they  germinated.  He  studied  the 
birds  and  animals.  When  fifteen  years  of  age,  happy  in  the 
possession  of  his  first  pair  of  boots,  Walter  went  to  church. 
The  church  services  were  held  in  the  evening  in  a  log  school- 
house.  During  the  service  a  heavy  rain  fell,  swelling  a  small 
creek  they  had  to  cross  to  get  home,  almost  beyond  fording. 
The  minister,  being  a  small  man,  hesitated  when  they  came 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    AND    EARLY    YEARS      n 

to  the  stream,  remarking,  "I  fear  to  try  to  cross."  Young 
Gresham  told  him  if  he  would  get  on  his  back  he  would  carry 
him  across.  The  minister  did  so,  reaching  the  other  side  in 
safety.  Some  one  asked  the  boy  if  he  did  not  feel  afraid  to 
undertake  it.  "No,"  he  said,  "why  should  I,  when  I  had 
the  man  of  God  on  my  back?" 

Dennis  Pennington,  "Old  Uncle  Dennis,"  was  appointed 
by  the  Circuit  Court  of  Harrison  County,  administrator 
of  Colonel  Gresham's  estate,  and  by  the  Governor,  sheriff 
of  Harrison  County,  to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term.  He 
was  approaching  sixty  at  the  time  he  became  a  candidate 
to  succeed  himself,  and  his  opponent,  a  young  man,  made  a 
speech  at  a  gathering  in  which  he  said  that  Pennington, 
although  a  worthy  man,  was  incapacitated,  by  reason  of  the 
infirmities  of  age,  longer  to  serve  the  people.  In  his  reply 
"Uncle  Dennis"  said  he  would  challenge  his  opponent  to 
a  wrestling  bout,  and  if  he  could  not  speedily  demonstrate 
his  superiority  he  would  retire  from  the  contest  and  urge 
all  of  his  friends  to  vote  for  the  younger  man.  The  chal- 
lenge was  declined,  and  Dennis  Pennington  was  triumph- 
antly elected  to  the  only  lucrative  office  he  ever  held,  unless 
it  be  taking  the  census  of  Indiana  Territory  in  1815  or  the 
census  of  Harrison  County,  Indiana,  in  1850. 

A  Whig  in  politics,  Dennis  Pennington  never  hesitated 
to  oppose  the  principles  and  traditions  of  his  party.  As  a 
candidate  for  lieutenant-governor  of  Indiana,  he  opposed 
internal  improvements  and  especially  the  construction  of 
the  Wabash  and  Erie  Canal.  He  argued  that  the  con- 
struction of  the  railroads,  which  would  soon  come,  for  they 
were  a  success  in  the  East,  would  destroy  the  utility  of  the 
canal  and  entail  a  loss  of  all  the  money  expended  on  its 
construction.  Limited  in  education,  phonetic  in  his  style 
of  spelling,  Dennis  Pennington  was  impassioned  at  times, 
and  almost  always,  where  many  educated  and  talented  men 
fail,  effective  as  a  public  speaker.  But  the  people  of  the 
northern  and  central  parts  of  the  State  went  almost  solidly 


12       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

against  him  and  he  was  defeated.  And  although  much  of 
the  water  of  the  Wabash  River,  it  is  said,  was  used  in  the 
construction  of  the  Wabash  Railroad,  its  operation  soon 
verified  Dennis  Pennington's  prediction. 

''Old  Uncle  Dennis"  was  generous  with  the  widow  and 
the  young  children  in  the  division  of  the  fees  which 
had  accrued  at  the  time  of  Colonel  William  Gresham's 
assassination.  Samuel  J.  Wright,  for  convenience  of  ad- 
ministration, was  appointed  guardian  of  the  five  Gresham 
children.  But  it  was  only  a  nominal  guardianship.  The 
mother  and  "Uncle  Dennis"  looked  after  them. 

The  mother  married  Noah  Rumley.  From  this  mar- 
riage, there  were  three  children.  Anthony  —  named  after 
Anthony  Davis  —  died  in  infancy.  Mandy  and  Kate  lived 
to  mature  womanhood,  Kate  to  three  score  and  ten.  For 
their  younger  half-sisters,  the  boys  always  manifested  the 
greatest  solicitude,  while  the  girls  in  turn  thought  their 
big  brothers  were  invincible.  They  saw  them  followed  by 
droves  of  boys,  who  made  the  Gresham  homestead  their 
headquarters.  During  a  visit  to  a  neighbor  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  county  in  the  midst  of  the  war,  Kate  heard  a 
great  deal  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  and  how 
they  were  going  to  subvert  the  government.  While  the 
meetings  were  held  at  night,  they  were  not  secret,  and  were 
attended  by  men  from  Kentucky.  One  morning  at  break- 
fast, after  an  all-night  session,  Kate  said  to  the  head  of  the 
family,  "Ben  and  Wat  and  Bill  will  soon  be  home  from  the 
army  and  you  had  better  be  careful  about  your  meetings." 
After  that  the  meetings  of  the  Knights  were  in  secret. 

The  views  of  the  mother,  supplemented  by  the  stories 
of  "Old  Uncle  Dennis"  and  the  sermons  of  Dennis's  brother, 
the  Reverend  Walter  Pennington,  an  itinerant  Methodist 
preacher,  made  the  Gresham  boys  anti-slavery  as  they  lisped 
their  alphabet.  It  was  partly  for  Walter  Pennington  that 
Walter  Quintin  Gresham  was  named. 

Because  of  his  relations  with  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  and 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS      13 

because  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  men,  if  not  the  fore- 
most man  from  a  practical  standpoint,  in  the  formative 
days  in  Indiana,  Dennis  Pennington  and  his  family  deserve 
more  than  passing  mention.  He  was  born  in  Cumberland 
County,  Virginia,  May  18,  1776,  the  fourth  son  of  Edward 
Pennington,  who  reared  six  children,  five  sons  and  one 
daughter,  Mary,  who  married  George  Gresham. 

In  the  Fall  of  1797  Dennis  Pennington  rode  with  Henry 
Clay  much  of  the  way  from  Virginia  to  Kentucky.  He 
seconded  Henry  Clay  in  the  latter 's  efforts  in  1799  to  make 
Kentucky  a  Free  State — she  had  come  in  in  1792  as  a  Slave 
State  —  and  then  went  prospecting  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Ohio  River  in  the  Northwest  Territory.  Meanwhile 
he  farmed,  taught  school,  and  married.  At  Louisville  he 
crossed  the  Ohio  to  Clarksville,  laid  out  in  1784  on  part  of 
"Clark's  Grant"  of  150,000  acres  of  land  given  by  the 
State  of  Virginia  to  General  George  Rogers  Clark  and  his 
troops  for  capturing  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes. 

On  his  way  to  the  legislature,  to  conventions,  to  the 
river,  or  just  to  see  the  boys,  "Old  Uncle  Dennis"  would 
stop  over  night  at  the  Gresham  homestead.  His  visits 
so  excited  her  boys,  the  mother  said,  that  she  sometimes 
dreaded  his  coming.  "Wat  would  ask  questions  until  mid- 
night, tumble  and  toss  the  balance  of  the  night,  and  then 
pester  the  life  out  of  us  for  books  about  France,  Spain, 
George  Rogers  Clark,  and  the  Northwest  Territory." 

It  was  from  Dennis  Pennington  that  the  Gresham  boys 
first  heard  the  story  of  how  Clark,  with  a  few  Virginia 
troops  and  frontiersmen,  took  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes, 
and  added  to  the  Union  all  the  territory  northwest  of  the 
Ohio  River.  At  both  these  places  he  found  slaves,  who 
had  been  introduced  in  1700,  and  it  was  his  assurance  to 
the  French  that  Virginia,  a  Slave  State,  would  allow  them 
"to  retain  their  possessions  and  to  enjoy  their  ancient 
rights  and  liberties,"  that  caused  them  to  side  with  him 
and  make  his  conquest  of  the  British  garrison  at  Vincennes 
2 


14       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

possible.  "Early  was  the  seed  of  strife  sown,"  said  "Old 
Uncle  Dennis,"  and  Walter  Q.  Gresham  never  forgot  this 
in  all  his  contact  with  the  pro- slavery  men. 

Uncle  Dennis  told  the  boys  of  his  many  visits  to  General 
Clark;  how  he  often  found  him  in  his  log  home,  looking 
out  on  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  and  berating  the  injustice  of 
his  native  State  and  of  the  National  government.  Long 
before  General  Clark  took  to  strong  drink,  lands  granted 
to  him  by  Virginia  had  been  sold  on  execution  on  judgments 
that  had  been  taken  against  him  on  bills  he  had  drawn  on 
Virginia  in  payment  of  supplies  for  troops  who,  under  his 
leadership,  were  carrying  her  flag  to  victory  and  glory. 
Not  until  the  time  of,  and  due  to  the  efforts  of  Senator 
Daniel  W.  Voorhees,  did  the  United  States  pay  the  estate 
of  George  Rogers  Clark  the  obligations  it  assumed  when 
it  "took  over  from  Virginia  the  Northwest  Territory." 
The  old  man  also  told  the  Gresham  boys  how,  in  his  bitter- 
ness and  resentment  to  his  native  land,  General  Clark 
accepted  a  commission  as  major-general  through  Citizen 
Genet  of  the  French  Republic,  but  for  the  sole  purpose,  as 
Dennis  Pennington  always  contended,  "of  driving  the 
Spanish  from  the  Mississippi  Valley."  Their  American 
history  the  Gresham  boys  learned  as  they  learned  their 
letters,  and  as  well. 

Clarksville,  now  almost  deserted,  was  at  the  time  of 
Dennis  Pennington's  first  visit  a  pretentious  village.  Lo- 
cated at  the  foot  of  "the  Falls,"  General  Clark  expected  it 
to  become  a  great  city,  but  when  the  steamboats  came  it 
was  no  place  for  them  at  low  water,  and  at  high  water  the 
swift  current  and  "big  eddy"  made  it  a  dangerous  place  for 
boats  to  land.  The  ' '  Buffalo  Trail, ' '  which  became  the  Vin- 
cennes  Road  from  the  Falls,  ended  at  Clarksville,  for  there 
the  buffalo  crossed  the  Ohio  River  in  their  migrations  from 
the  Illinois  or  prairie  country  to  Kentucky. 

It  was  out  the  Buffalo  Trail,  or  the  Vincennes  Road, 
turning  to  the  south  at  the  head  of  "the  Knobs,"  that  the 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    AND    EARLY    YEARS      15 

Harbisons,  Penningtons,  Rumleys,  Davises,  and  Greshams 
went  into  the  country  lying  between  the  Vincennes  Road 
and  the  Ohio  River.  And  thus  it  was  that  the  first  settle- 
ment in  Harrison  County,  south  of  the  Vincennes  Road  and 
before  the  settlement  at  Corydon,  was  at  Lanesville,  nine 
miles  southwest  of  New  Albany,  as  the  crow  flies. 

It  was  near  Lanesville  that  William  Pennington,  Dennis's 
brother,  settled,  lived,  and  died.  According  to  the  local 
historian,  elder  members  of  the  Pennington  family  were  in 
advance  of  Dennis  in  Indiana,  and  settled  in  Lanesville  in 
1792.  But  according  to  the  traditions  in  the  Gresham 
family,  the  Penningtons  were  not  the  first  settlers  in  and 
about  Lanesville.  The  mother  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham  is  my 
authority  for  the  statement  that  Major  John  Harbison  pre- 
ceded them  all. 

Major  Harbison  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania.  One 
of  the  traditions  is  that  he  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier, 
but  more  likely  he  got  his  title  as  an  Indian  fighter.  He 
moved  to  Kentucky,  and  there  is  no  doubt  he  was  as  des- 
perate an  Indian  fighter  and  daring  an  explorer  in  the 
Northwest  Territory  as  Boone  was  in  Kentucky.  As  a  man 
of  affairs  and  as  a  legislator  he  was  Boone's  superior.  That 
he  was  in  Indiana  and  camped  in  and  about  Lanesville  as 
early  as  1 792  is  possibly  true.  He  may  have  been  there  even 
earlier,  for  he  crossed  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to  the 
lake  region  many  times,  at  periods  when  it  was  more  danger- 
ous to  traverse  that  region  than  to  go  through  Kentucky. 

During  the  period  between  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain  in  1783  and  Jay's  treaty  in  1794,  the  treaty  of  Green- 
ville in  1795,  and  the  supplementary  treaties  with  the 
Indians  when  the  latter  finally  acknowledged  the  supremacy 
of  the  ''Thirteen  Fires,"  the  thirteen  original  States,  Major 
John  Harbison  was  typical  of  the  men  who  persisted  in  bor- 
ing into  the  Northwest  Territory  in  defiance  of  the  British 
soldiers  still  at  Detroit  and  near  Fort  Wayne,  of  the  Indians, 
of   the  congress  under  the  confederation,  of  Washington 


16       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

himself,  and  of  the  government  under  the  Constitution. 
Claiming  the  country  by  conquest  because  the  ally  of  the 
Indians  had  surrendered  at  Yorktown,  the  hardy  backwoods- 
man was  as  merciless  as  Walter  Q.  Gresham  thought  the 
government  of  the  United  States  became  to  the  aborigines. 

But  when  Major  Harbison  first  visited  the  Lanesville 
neighborhood,  he  was  not  then  seeking  a  place  to  settle;  he 
was  searching  for  Mrs.  English's  children,  who  had  been 
stolen  by  the  Indians.  Dr.  English  was  killed  by  the  Cher- 
okee Indians  at  Bean's  Station,  Tennessee.  Among  the 
children  carried  into  captivity  were  Mrs.  English's  two 
daughters,   Elizabeth  and  Virginia,  and  a  son,  Matthew. 

"Get  me  my  children  and  I  will  marry  you,"  is  the  way 
the  widow  answered  Major  Harbison's  proposal.  He  first 
stole  Virginia  away  from  the  Indians  and  then  effected 
Matthew's  exchange.  Elizabeth,  who  was  four  years  old 
when  she  was  captured,  had  lost  all  knowledge  of  her  own 
tongue  at  thirteen  when  she  was  recaptured  —  by  "strat- 
agem." Matthew,  her  brother,  when  the  Major's  party 
located  her  near  Detroit,  returned  to  the  wigwams,  saying 
he  was  disgusted  with  the  whites  and  would  never  again 
leave  the  Indians.  After  a  few  days  the  Indians'  suspicions 
were  allayed,  and  Elizabeth  was  allowed  to  go  to  a  distant 
spring.  There  she  was  prevailed  on — almost  compelled — 
by  her  brother  and  Major  Harbison  to  start  with  them  at 
once  for  Kentucky.  After  a  few  years  she  regained  her 
own  language,  and  in  Marion  County,  Kentucky,  married 
Dennis  Pennington. 

Virginia  English,  always  called  "Jinnie,"  married  Wil- 
liam, or  "Billy"  Pennington,  in  1804.  It  was  one  of  the 
first  marriages  in  Indiana  Territory,  and  the  first  in  what  is 
now  Harrison  County.  This  is  a  matter  of  record.  They 
always  lived  near  Lanesville,  within  a  mile  of  where  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  was  born.  Jinnie  had  a  mind  of  her  own.  One 
day,  after  she  and  Billy  had  been  married  fifty  years,  with 
children  and  grandchildren  scattered  over  several  counties, 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS       17 

Billy  came  home  in  great  trepidation.  "Jinnie,"  said  he, 
"we  must  hitch  up  at  once  and  go  to  Cory  don  and  get  mar- 
ried over  again.  The  preacher  who  married  us  has  been 
indicted  for  horse  stealing,  and  the  conference  has  met  and 
taken  away  his  license,  thus  rendering  null  and  void  all  his 
acts.  We  must  get  married  over  again  at  once,  I  tell  you," 
Billy  concluded.  Jinnie  argued  that  a  marriage  that  had 
been  contracted  in  good  faith  and  lived  up  to  for  fifty  years 
could  not  be  affected,  no  matter  what  might  have  happened 
to  the  preacher  who  tied  the  knot.  Billy  was  insistent,  and 
the  discussion  became  warm.  Finally  Jinnie  closed  the 
debate :  ' '  Well,  when  Jinnie  marries  again  it  will  not  be  to 
Billy  Pennington." 

Splendidly  endowed  by  nature,  Aunt  Jennie  was  a  fre- 
quent and  always  welcome  guest  at  the  Gresham  homestead. 
Sometimes  her  visit  would  run  into  days.  "Aunt  Betsy," 
as  Elizabeth  Pennington  was  called,  was  not  behind  her 
sister  in  natural  gifts,  to  which  was  added  all  the  finesse  and 
cunning  of  her  childhood's  captors.  And  when  it  came  to 
Indian  stories,  Aunt  Jennie  did  not  have  to  draw  on  her  imag- 
ination. She  had  all  the  tribes  and  the  chiefs  at  her  fingers' 
ends.  She  could  tell  about  Harmar's  and  St.  Clair's  defeats, 
and  of  "Mad  Anthony"  Wayne's  victory,  and  of  scores  of 
Indian  fights  not  mentioned  in  any  of  the  local  histories. 

Elizabeth  and  Virginia  English  Pennington  were  sup- 
posed to  be  distant  connections  of  William  H.  English,  the 
Democratic  candidate  for  Vice-President  in  1880,  and  a 
leading  man  in  southern  Indiana  in  antebellum  days. 

Major  John  Harbison  died  of  cancer  on  May  1,  1829,  and 
was  buried  in  a  cornfield  a  few  rods  back  of  his  home  and 
about  half  a  mile  west  of  Lanesville,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
present  New  Albany  and  Corydon  Pike  and  within  a  mile 
of  wftere  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  born.  For  years  the 
children  were  frightened  by  stories  about  his  ghost  and 
the  ghosts  of  the  Indians  he  had  slain  appearing  just  after 
nightfall.     Here  it  was  he  built  his  first  log  cabin.     It  was 


18       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

years  before  he  entered  the  land,  for  it  was  not  until  after 
the  final  treaties  with  the  Indians  in  1804  that  the  land 
offices  were  opened  up.  No  stone  marks  his  grave,  although 
for  that  time  he  was  a  man  of  means  and  owned  much 
realty.  In  18 18  it  is  recorded  he  sold  one  tract  for  $2,000 
cash.  His  will,  which  was  probated  May  4,  1829,  and  re- 
corded in  Will  Record  "A,  "  at  page  154,  discloses  that  while 
he  acted  with  Dennis  Pennington  in  politics  as  an  anti- 
slavery  man,  he  did  not  free  all  his  slaves.1  The  appraise- 
ment of  his  personal  property  is  interesting  as  disclosing 
the  values  of  that  time.  One  bay  mare  and  colt  were  valued 
at  $30;  one  speckled  cow  and  calf,  at  $7;  one  long-horned 
cow  and  calf,  at  $10;  while  a  white-backed  heifer  was  con- 
sidered to  be  worth  $3 .  Seventeen  head  of  young  hogs 
were  valued  at  $12;   one  clock,  $30,  and  one  secretary,  $20. 

A  grandson  of  Major  Harbison,  James  Harbison,  was  a 
schoolmate  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham.  During  the  Civil  War 
Jim  belonged  to  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  but  was 
one  of  the  Knights  who  voted  for  Gresham  for  Congress  in 
1866  as  against  his  own  party  candidate,  Michael  C.  Kerr. 

Elvira  Boone  was  the  first  white  child  born  in  southern 
Indiana  outside  of  Clark's  Grant.  She  was  born  at  Lacon- 
ia,  Boone  Township,  Harrison  County,  in  1804.  Elvira's 
father,  George  Boone,  was  a  cousin  of  Daniel  Boone. 
George  Boone  and  Squire  Boone,  a  brother  of  Daniel  Boone, 
were  among  the  early  settlers  in  what  is  now  Boone  Town- 
ship, Harrison  County.  They  were  friends  and  fellow 
explorers  with  Dennis  Pennington,  but,  unlike  him,  they 
were  pro-slavery  men.2     As  woodsmen,  the  Boones  were 

1  "I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  beloved  sister,  Ann  Porter  Shaw,  late  Ann  Porter  Harbison, 
a  certain  negro  woman  (now  in  her  possession)  by  the  name  (I  think  of  Fannie) ,  which  negro 
woman  was  given  to  me  by  my  mother  to  have  and  to  hold,  the  said  negro  woman,  together 
with  her  issue  during  my  said  sister's  natural  life  and  at  her  death  to  descend  to  the  heirs  of 
her  body  to  have  and  to  hold  the  same  forever."     (Mrs.  Shaw  then  lived  in  Lexingjton,  Ky.) 

2  In  Miscellaneous  Record  "A"  of  the  Records  of  Harrison  County,  at  page  42,  under 
date  of  May  12,  1812,  Isaiah  Boone  of  Boone  Township,  Harrison  County,  Territory  of  Indiana, 
by  deed,  "for  a  good  and  valuable  consideration,"  emancipated  his  slave  Amy,  twenty-one 
years  of  age.  Immediately  following  is  an  indenture  which  Amy  signed  by  her  "X"  mark, 
in  which,  in  consideration  of  clothing  and  sustenance,  Amy  bound  herself  to  serve  and  obey 
Isaiah  Boone  and  his  heirs  and  assigns  for  a  period  of  seventy-five  years. 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS      19 

Dennis's  superiors,  but  when  it  came  to  politics,  Dennis 
Pennington,  supported  as  he  was  by  his  stepfather-in-law, 
Major  John  Harbison,  excelled  them,  as  he  did  the  other 
pro-slavery  men.  After  Indiana  became  a  Free  State  some 
of  the  Boones  returned  to  Kentucky.  One,  Hiram,  became 
one  of  the  large  slaveholders  in  Meade  County,  and  after 
the  Civil  War  moved  to  Texas. 

It  was  in  the  Summer  of  1801,  or  1804,  most  likely  the 
latter  year,  that  Dennis  Pennington  and  his  party  of  ex- 
plorers selected  the  forks  of  Indian  Creeks,  now  the  town  of 
Cory  don,  as  the  site  of  his  future  habitation.  -There  were 
schools  of  fish  in  the  streams,  and  game  abounded.  They 
made  a  small  clearing,  planted  some  turnip  seed,  and  went 
back  to  Kentucky  for  the  women,  children,  and  household 
effects.  When  they  returned  six  weeks  later,  they  were 
surprised  to  find  the  deer  had  not  disturbed  the  turnips, 
which  had  fully  matured.  Within  the  present  boundaries 
of  Cory  don,  Dennis  made  his  camp  and  built  his  log  cabin 
near  the  spring,  in  part  shaded  by  the  great  Constitutional 
Elm,  so  called  because  some  of  the  sessions  of  the  conven- 
tion that  adopted  Indiana's  first  constitution  were  held 
under  its  expanding  arms. 

In  181 5  Dennis  Pennington  moved  to  a  point  four 
miles  northwest  of  Cory  don  on  the  Vincennes  Road  — "the 
Barrens"  it  was  called,  because  of  the  absence  of  tim- 
ber. His  brother,  Walter,  soon  joined  him  there.  Here 
they  built  a  log  Methodist  meeting-house — Pennington's 
Chapel.  In  the  old  churchyard  sleep  Dennis  and  Walter 
and  many  of  the  younger  generations  of  the  Penningtons. 

Before  selecting  the  Cory  don  site,  Dennis  Pennington 
made  a  number  of  trips  through  the  Indiana  wilderness. 
On  one  he  followed  the  Buffalo  Trail  from  Clarksville  to 
Vincennes,  where  he  first  met  William  H.  Harrison,  who, 
on  January  10,  1801,  assumed  the  reins  of  the  Indiana  terri- 
torial government,  which  had  been  organized  March  3, 1800. 
He  had  previously  visited  Cincinnati  and  Chillicothe,  the 


20       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

latter  the  capital  of  the  Northwest  Territory.  At  Chillicothe 
he  conferred  with  General  St.  Clair,  the  Governor  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  and  also  with  Thomas  Worthington,  a 
Virginian  who  had  freed  his  slaves,  about  fifty  in  number, 
and  moved  with  them  in  1797  to  Ross  County,  Northwest 
Territory,  settling  near  Chillicothe.  The  anti-slavery  people 
in  that  part  of  the  Northwest  Territory  —  soon  to  become 
the  State  of  Ohio — had  succeeded  in  being  cut  off  from 
their  pro-slavery  fellows  in  what  is  now  Indiana  and  Illinois. 

Never  for  self  or  pelf,  and  one  of  the  best  practical 
politicians  of  his  or  any  other  time,  Dennis  Pennington 
decided  to  go  into  the  contest  in  Indiana.  As  a  matter 
of  policy  he  supported  Governor  Harrison  and  Attorney- 
General  Randolph,  a  pro-slavery  Virginian,  in  their  official 
aspirations. 

December  28,  1802,  Governor  Harrison,  as  president  of  a 
convention  that  he  had  been  instrumental  in  assembling  in 
Vincennes,  memorialized  Congress  to  suspend  for  ten  years 
the  Sixth  Article  of  the  compact  between  the  United  States 
and  the  people  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  "that  there  shall 
be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  said  territory, 
because  it  had  prevented  the  country  from  populating 
and  had  been  the  reason  of  driving  many  valuable  citizens 
possessing  slaves  to  the  Spanish  side  of  the  Mississippi." 

It  was  from  the  lips  of  that  old  Virginian,  Dennis  Pen- 
nington, that  Walter  Q.  Gresham  first  learned  that  it  was 
John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
of  the  House  to  which  this  memorial  was  referred,  who  on 
March  3,  1803,  wrote  the  report  against  it. 

Then,  on  September  22,  1803,  Governor  Harrison  and 
Judges  Vanderburgh  and  Davis  provided  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  slavery  under  the  indenture  system  and  made  these 
indentures  assignable.  These  laws  were  mainly  copied  from 
the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  codes.  Under  the  ordinance 
of  July  13,  1787,  until  the  legislative  period  arrived,  the 
governor  and  judges  were  the  legislative  body.     Indentures 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS      21 

drafted  under  these  laws  were  for  forty,  fifty,  and  ninety 
years.  Judge  Vanderburgh  was  a  slaveholder  and  he  held 
slaves  until  his  death  at  Vincennes  in  181 7. 

Indiana  Territory  having  attained  a  population  of  5,000, 
the  requisite  number  under  the  ordinance  of  July  13,  1787, 
to  entitle  it  to  a  legislature,  its  first  General  Assembly  was 
elected,  met  at  Vincennes  July  2,  1805,  and  confirmed  the 
governor's  and  judges'  indenture  law.  Under  the  ordi- 
nance, while  the  lower  house  of  the  legislature  was  elected 
by  the  people,  the  upper  house,  or  the  "council,"  as  it  was 
called  in  the  ordinance,  composed  of  five  members  to 
serve  for  five  years,  was  selected  by  the  president  from  ten 
names  nominated  to  him  by  the  members  of  the  House. 
Instead  of  selecting  the  five  men,  President  Jefferson  dele- 
gated this  authority  to  Governor  Harrison  by  inclosing 
to  the  governor  commissions  signed  in  blank.  Governor 
Harrison  filled  in  the  blanks  with  pro-slavery  men.  And 
thus  it  was  that  the  Second  General  Assembly  of  the  Indiana 
Territory,  on  September  17,  1807,  without  the  pretext  of  the 
indenture  laws,  provided  for  the  introduction  of  slavery 
into  the  territory.  Herein  lay  the  cause  of  the  Reverend 
Walter  Pennington's  bitter  assailment  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

These  laws,  retained  by  the  Illinois  territorial  legislature 
and  validated  by  the  Illinois  Constitution  of  18 18,  became 
infamous  in  history  as  "The  Illinois  Black  Laws."  In 
them  Abraham  Lincoln  could  not  even  make  a  dent.  The 
Illinois  Supreme  Court  was  rendering  decisions  on  the  ques- 
tion of  slaves  and  the  Black  Laws  until  1865.1  And  not 
until  the  adoption  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  were  they  finally  got  rid  of. 

October  10,  1807,  Dennis  Pennington  was  one  of  the 
speakers  at  the  famous  mass  meeting  at  Springville,  Clark 


Cornelius  vs.  Cohen  i  Breeze  131,  1825. 
Nance  vs.  Howard  1  Breeze  242,  1828. 
Phcebe  vs.  Jay  1  Breeze  268, 

Bailey  i»s.  Cromwell  3  Scammon  71,  1840. 
Kinney  VS.  Cook        3  Scammon  232,  1840. 


Sarah  vs.  Borden        4  Scammon  341,  1843. 
Thornton  Case  11  111.  332,  1849. 

Homes  vs.  Ammons    14  111.  29,  1852. 
Rodney  vs.  111.  Cent. 

R.  R.  Co.  19  111.  42,  1857. 


22       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

County,  Indiana,  at  which  the  doctrine  of  "Squatter  sover- 
eignty," or  "Leave  it  to  the  people,"  was  first  advanced. 
Springfield  was  the  first  county  seat  of  Clark  County.  Not 
a  vestige  of  it  remains  to-day. 

After  reciting  the  history  of  the  slavery  question,  the 
Resolutions  proceeded : x 

As  to  the  interest  of  the  Territory,  a  variety  of  opinions 
exist ;  but  suffice  your  memorialists  to  state,  that  it  is  a  fact  that 
a  great  number  of  citizens  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States 
are  preparing  to  and  many  of  them  have  actually  emigrated  to 
this  territory  to  get  free  from  a  Government  which  tolerates  slavery. 
The  institution  of  slavery  is  either  right  or  wrong,  and  if  Congress 
should  think  with  us,  that  it  is  wrong,  that  it  is  inconsistent  with 
the  principles  on  which  our  future  constitution  is  to  be  formed, 
your  memorialists  will  rest  satisfied  that  at  least  this  subject  will 
not  be  by  them  taken  up  until  the  constitutional  number  of  the 
citizens  of  the  Territory  shall  assume  that  right. 

Congress  concluded  to  leave  it  to  the  people.  As  to  who 
actually  drew  this  Springville  memorial,  the  record  is  silent, 
but  as  to  who  wrote  its  principles  into  the  statute  and  con- 
stitution of  Indiana,  there  is  no  ground  for  speculation. 
"Let  Governor  Harrison  be  reappointed  and  let  Jonathan 
Jennings  go  to  Congress;  what  we  want  is  the  legislature," 
said  Dennis  Pennington. 

February  27,  1809,  Congress  amended  the  ordinance 
of  July  13,  1787,  providing  that  the  councillors,  or  upper 
branch  of  the  legislature,  should  be  elected  by  the  people, 
and  authorizing  the  governor  to  apportion  the  territory  for 
this  purpose.  In  the  apportionment  a  councillor  and  a 
member  of  the  House  were  given  by  Governor  Harrison  to 
Harrison  County,  which  on  April  11,  1808,  had  been  organ- 
ized out  of  Clark  and  Knox  counties. 

At  the  election,  April  2,  18 10,  Major  John  Harbison, 
Dennis  Pennington's  stepfather-in-law,  was  elected  coun- 
cillor from  Harrison  County,  while  Dennis  Pennington  him- 
self was  elected  from  that  county  to  the  House,  where  the 

iSee  pages  58  and  112. 


BIRTH,     ANCESTRY,     AND    EARLY    YEARS      23 

anti-slavery  men  were  in  an  overwhelming  majority.  When 
they  assembled,  over  anti-slavery  men  like  John  Paul  and 
Richard  Rue,  soldiers  of  George  Rogers  Clark  and  General 
William  Johnson,  Dennis  Pennington  was  elected  Speaker  of 
the  House,  and  continued  to  be  re-elected  to  that  position 
at  each  succeeding  session  of  the  territorial  legislature. 

At  the  first  session  in  18 10,  not  only  did  Dennis  Penning- 
ton lead  in  repealing  the  legislation  we  have  mentioned,  but 
he  took  the  affirmative  and  helped  pass  the  acts  prohibiting 
the  introduction  of  indentured  negroes  into  the  territory, 
the  act  against  the  unlawful  removal  of  negroes  from  the 
territory,  and  the  act  against  kidnapping.  The  kidnapping 
of  a  favorite,  and  there  were  such  cases,  aroused  the  greatest 
resentment  among  the  an ti- slavery  people. 

Repressive  laws  against  emancipation  and  attachment 
for  certain  of  their  slaves,  especially  those  who  had  been 
domestic  servants,  brought  many  negroes  or  mulattoes  to 
the  Northwest  Territory.  The  few  slaves  the  Penningtons 
owned  they  freed  before  they  left  Virginia.  But  "Aunt 
Fannie"  did  not  want  to  be  left  behind,  so  she  was  carried 
along  to  Pennington's  Chapel.  She  lived  for  years  in  Wal- 
ter Pennington's  family  and  died  one  of  the  free  negroes 
of  Cory  don. 

It  was  the  rough  and  uncouth  Dennis  Pennington  who 
drove  Governor  Posey  out  of  Cory  don,  not  the  chills  and 
malaria,  for  there  was  just  as  much  of  the  latter  in  early  days 
on  Silver  Creek,  at  Clarksville,  and  on  Beargrass,  at  Louis- 
ville, as  on  Indian  Creek,  at  Corydon.  A  Virginian  by  birth, 
rising  to  be  a  colonel  in  the  Continental  army,  General 
Posey  had  been  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  legislature  and  a 
senator  from  Louisiana  before  President  Madison  appointed 
him  Governor  of  Indiana.  Succeeding  Governor  Harrison, 
the  head  of  the  pro-slavery  party,  Governor  Posey  at  sixty- 
three,  in  feeble  health  and  never  much  of  a  politician,  was 
no  match  for  Dennis  Pennington,  then  in  his  prime,  with  the 
territorial  legislature  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 


24       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

As  the  census  enumerator  in  1815,  Dennis  Pennington 
carried  the  anti-slavery  propaganda  into  every  household. 
And  as  a  means  of  stirring  up  the  people  to  elect  the  right 
kind  of  delegates  to  the  convention  that  had  been  author- 
ized to  submit  a  State  constitution,  Dennis  Pennington 
objected  to  Governor  Posey  to  the  return  of  negroes  and 
mulattoes  claimed  as  fugitives  —  and  there  were  such  — 
without  what  is  now  called  "due  process  of  law, "  or  con- 
trary to  his  act  against  kidnapping  and  the  fugitive  slave 
law  that  President  Washington  had  signed.  June  10,  18 16, 
that  convention,  with  Dennis  Pennington  one  of  its  mem- 
bers, met  and  wrote  a  clean-cut  anti-slavery  clause  in  the 
constitution  for  the  State  of  Indiana. 

The  efficiency  of  Dennis  Pennington's  system  is  attested 
by  the  fact  that  during  the  decade  from  1810  to  1820,  the 
number  of  free  negroes  in  Indiana  increased  from  less  than 
400  to  over  1,200,  while  in  Illinois  they  decreased  from 
600  to  450.  During  the  same  period,  the  number  of  slaves 
in  Illinois,  under  the  "Black  Laws,"  increased  from  168 
to  917.  In  Indiana,  in  1800,  there  were  but  28  slaves;  in 
1 8 10,  237,  due  entirely  to  the  governor's  and  judges'  laws. 
The  territorial  legislation  of  18 10  arrested  their  increase, 
and  in  1820  the  Indiana  Supreme  Court,1  at  one  sitting,  in 
construing  the  anti-slavery  clause  of  the  Indiana  constitu- 
tion freed  all  slaves  then  in  the  State  except  the  few  who 
were  held  as  slaves  prior  to  the  ordinance  of  June  13,  1787. 
In  keeping  faith  with  the  French  at  Kaskaskia  and  Vin- 
cennes,  Governor  St.  Clair  with  Washington's  approval  had 
held  that  the  ordinance  did  not  free  any  persons  who  were 
slaves  on  and  prior  to  the  date  of  its  enactment. 

Dennis  Pennington  also  helped  to  abate  the  pro-slavery 
movement  to  Missouri  via  Clarksville  and  the  Vincennes 
Road.  If  the  negro  slave,  while  his  master  was  on  his  way 
through  Indiana,  ran  off,  the  master  received  no  aid  from  the 
State  in  capturing  the  runaway.     The  Louisiana  Supreme 

1  In  re  Clark,  i  Blackford  122. 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    AND    EARLY    YEARS      25 

Court  had  declared  that  one  breath  of  free  air  with  the 
master's  consent  rendered  the  slave  forever  afterwards  free. 
But  in  Illinois  it  was  different.1  The  "Black  Laws"  and 
'  ■  comity  will  protect  the  slaveholder ' '  while  passing  through 
Illinois.  Hence  it  was  that  the  route  via  Shawneetown, 
Illinois,  to  Belleville  and  East  St.  Louis,  and  thence  across 
the  Mississippi,  became  the  popular  route  for  the  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  slaveholder  migrating  to  Missouri. 

One  day  Dennis  Pennington  said,  "Boys,  the  capital 
will  have  to  leave  Vincennes  and  come  to  one  of  the  river 
counties.  For  us  to  get  it  at  Cory  don,  we  must  have  ready 
a  fine  county  courthouse,  suitable  for  the  capitol,  in  which 
the  Legislature  and  Supreme  Court  may  meet,  when  we  ask 
them  to  come."  Accordingly,  in  181 1,  the  Harrison  County 
Courthouse  was  completed.  It  is  still  standing,  a  two-story 
building,  sixty  feet  square,  with  walls  of  stone  two  feet 
thick.  One  of  the  few  historic  buildings  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  the  State  has  taken  steps  to  preserve  it. 

February  12,  18 13,  Dennis  Pennington,  as  a  member  of 
the  legislature  from  Harrison  County,  introduced  the  fol- 
lowing resolution:  "Resolved,  that  the  capital  be  removed 
from  Vincennes,  because  it  is  dangerous  to  continue  longer 
here  on  account  of  threatened  depredations  of  the  In- 
dians, who  may  destroy  our  valuable  public  records."  It 
passed  unanimously.  Then  the  lobby  talked  about  Harri- 
son County's  fine  courthouse.  March  11,  18 13,  Corydon, 
by  the  act  of  that  day,  was  named  the  capital  from  and 
after  May  1,  18 13.  There  it  remained  until  1824,  when  it 
was  moved  to  Indianapolis. 

When  the  Mexican  War  came  on,  Ben  Gresham  was 
nineteen.  He  and  Edward  L.  Pennington,  of  the  second 
generation  of  Penningtons,  immediately  enlisted  in  the 
Second  Indiana  Volunteers.  Pennington  was  elected  second 
lieutenant,  and  Ben,  over  many  men  twice  his  years,  first 
sergeant  of  Company  "I"  of  that  regiment.     Its  colonel, 

1  Williard  vs.  People,  4  Scammon  461,  decided  in  1844. 


26       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

William  Bowles,  was  a  friend  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and  after- 
wards, as  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle, 
in  southern  Indiana,  received  a  commission  from  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Confederate  States  of  America.  This  regiment 
was  afterwards  called  the  " Running  Regiment."  But  Ben 
always  claimed  that  the  running  retreat  at  Buena  Vista 
was  due  to  express  orders  which  he  heard  Colonel  Bowles 
himself  give. 

The  return  of  Ben  from  the  Mexican  War  enabled 
Walter,  then  seventeen  years  of  age,  to  accept  the  place 
"Uncle  Dennis"  had  arranged  for  him  in  the  office  of  his 
guardian,  Samuel  J.  Wright,  auditor  of  Harrison  County. 
The  boy  entered  upon  his  work  with  a  zest.  His  first  task 
was  as  minute  clerk  to  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 
His  nights  were  devoted  to  study.  When  fall  came,  he  re- 
tained his  position,  doing  his  work  at  nights,  and  attended 
the  Corydon  Seminary,  conducted  by  James  G.  May,  a 
descendant  of  the  North  Carolina  Quakers  who  settled 
Salem,  Washington  County,  Indiana.  In  two  years  young 
Gresham  completed  the  course  of  study  in  May's  Academy. 
His  acquaintance  grew  rapidly,  and  he  soon  was  a  general 
favorite  with  all  classes  in  town. 

That  service  as  amanuensis  to  the  board  of  county 
-commissioners  was  an  admirable  apprenticeship  to  the  law. 
1 '  Uncle  Dennis ' '  divined  what  was  in  his  favorite.  An  order 
that  the  boy  wrote — helped  formulate  — at  the  dictation 
of  the  three  unlettered  men,  he  soon  heard  denounced  on 
the  streets  of  Corydon  by  Samuel  Keen,  an  eminent  lawyer, 
as  the  "ultimatum"  of  the  board  of  county  commission- 
ers. "They  possess  more  power  than  the  Legislature,  the 
Governor,  and  the  Supreme  Court  combined,"  declared 
the  irate  lawyer.  One  of  the  anomalies  of  our  American 
system  is  that  boards  of  county  commissioners  possess 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  powers  of  the  highest 
order. 

William  T.  Otto,  who  lived  in  New  Albany,  but  whose 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    AND    EARLY    YEARS      27 

duties  as  Circuit  Judge  brought  him  to  Corydon  at  stated 
intervals,  took  an  interest  in  the  young  student  and  early 
directed  his  reading  in  the  English  classics.  Judge  Otto, 
a  native  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  studied  law  in  the  office 
of  one  of  the  Ingersolls,  and  afterwards  became  reporter  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  and  one  of  the 
best  educated  and  accomplished  lawyers  of  his  time,  united 
with  "Old  Uncle  Dennis"  in  advising  the  boy  to  study  law, 
and  stimulated  the  youthful  mind  by  legal  stories.  One 
that  made  an  indelible  impression  was  how  Horace  Binney, 
the  best  of  all  the  Philadelphia  lawyers,  spent  a  year  in 
London,  England,  searching  the  unpublished  records,  and 
reviving  the  memory  of  the  old  clerks  who  could  tell  of  the 
saying  of  this  or  that  chancellor,  and  then  came  back  and 
defeated  Daniel  Webster,  in  the  Girard  will  case. 

Meantime  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  transferred  to  the 
office  of  the  clerk  of  the  courts  of  Harrison  County.  When 
court  was  in  session  he  entered  the  orders  in  the  order  book 
as  they  were  made  by  the  judge,  and  in  vacation  made  up 
a  complete  record  of  the  decided  cases.  In  this  way  he 
acquired  an  insight  into  the  practical  workings  of  a  lawsuit 
and  learned  much  of  the  unwritten  law  precedents  and 
gossip  that  is  so  valuable  to  the  practicing  lawyer  and 
judge  on  the  bench. 

The  Winter  of  1850  and  185 1  he  again  taught  a  term  of 
school  in  the  log  schoolhouse  on  the  Gresham  farm.  He 
had  taught  his  first  term  before  he  turned  sixteen.  He 
was  an  exacting  teacher,  and  more  progress  was  made  by 
pupils  in  that  six  months  than  in  the  same  length  of  time 
before  or  since,  according  to  the  statements  of  some  of  those 
who  were  in  attendance.  School  out,  he  returned  in  the 
spring  to  Corydon  and  worked  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of 
the  county  until  the  following  September,  when  he  entered 
the  Indiana  State  University  at  Bloomington,  where  he 
remained  but  one  year. 

In  September  of  1852  he  took  up  the  study  of  law  in     ^ 


\j 


28       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  office  of  Judge  William  A.  Porter,  who  was  a  graduate 
of  Miami  University  and  had  settled  in  Cory  don  in  1827. 
In  his  legal  education,  so  far  as  it  bore  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion, he  was  fortunate,  as  will  appear  in  the  next  chapter, 
in  his  technical  legal  preceptor,  whose  exposition  of  the 
underlying  principles,  with  the  concrete  illustrations  from 
actual  life  which  "Old  Uncle  Dennis"  furnished,  were  so 
luminous  that  it  was  a  delight  to  dig  into  the  musty  law 
books.     Judge   Porter,   the   typical   old-style  lawyer,  tall, 
gaunt,  cold,  calculating,  well-to-do,  and  conservative  to  the 
last  degree,  was  a  master  of  his  profession.     He  had  served 
as  prosecuting  attorney  and  probate  judge,  and  for  those 
days  was  a  lawyer  of  wide  practice  and  experience.     He  also 
had  had  much  experience  as  a  legislator,  having  served  four 
terms   in   the   Indiana   legislature,   during   one  session    as 
speaker  and  two  terms  in  the  Upper  House  or  Senate.     In 
those  days  there  were  few  law  schools.     The.  one  connected 
with  the  State  University  at  Bloomington,  in  which  Judge 
Otto  was  a  professor,  Walter   Q.    Gresham  had  not   the 
means   to   attend.     But   he   gained   from   Judge    Otto   as 
much  as  he  would  have  derived  as  a  member  of  his  law 
school  —  more,  perhaps.     Judge   Porter  was  a  teacher  as 
well  as  lawyer,  who,  according  to  the  usages  of  those  times, 
took  the  pains  to  instruct  his  pupil.     The  practical  knowl- 
edge of  forms  and  court  procedure  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
had  acquired  dispensed  with  instructions  on  theories.     It 
was  with  principles  that  the  judge  familiarized  his  pupil. 
And  in  the  beginning  of  that  course  parts  of  Blackstone's 
and  Kent's  Commentaries,  definitions  and  legal  terms,  were 
so  well  memorized  that  they  never  were  forgotten.     Envi- 
roned as  he  was,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  gained  a  better  literary 
and  legal  education  than  nine-tenths  of  the  modern  college 
and  law  school  graduates. 

In  that  little  office  under  the  great  elm  tree  he  spent  his 
days  and  most  of  his  evenings  for  almost  two  years.  Mean- 
time he  joined  the  Masons,  mingled  much  with  the  people 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    AND    EARLY.  YEARS      29 

of  the  town,  went  to  parties,  and  deprecated  the  activities 
of  the  Underground  Railroad. 

April  1,  1854,  on  the  motion  of  Judge  Porter,  young 
Gresham  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Circuit  and  Com- 
mon Pleas  Court.  Soon  afterwards  a  partnership  was 
formed  with  Thomas  C.  Slaughter,  his  senior  by  fifteen 
years,  under  the  firm  name  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham. 
Mr.  Slaughter  was  a  man  of  much  business  and  legal  ability. 

The  junior  member  brought  to  the  firm  an  important 
piece  of  litigation.  May  18,  1854,  the  partition  suit  of 
Stanley  Young,  Jr.,  against  his  brother  Robert  H.  Young, 
his  mother,  and  his  other  brother  and  sisters,  was  begun  in 
the  Harrison  County  Circuit  Court.  Stanley  Young,  Jr., 
had  been  a  schoolmate  of  Mr.  Gresham's  at  Corydon. 
There  was  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  them  in  that  each 
had  lost  his  father  at  the  hand  of  an  assassin. 

Although  not  of  age,  Stanley  Young  had  been  named 
as  one  of  the  executors  of  his  father's  will.  During  the 
July  term,  1850,  of  the  Harrison  County  Circuit  Court, 
Colonel  William  C.  Marsh  shot  and  killed  St.  Clair  Young, 
Stanley's  father,  in  a  quarrel  which  grew  out  of  a  trivial 
affair.  Marsh  was  indicted  for  murder,  but  after  contin- 
uing the  case  from  term  to  term,  his  lawyer,  Samuel  Keen, 
in  September,  1853,  when  the  State  was  not  ready,  forced 
it  to  trial,  and  secured  a  verdict  of  "Not  guilty."  Judge 
Otto  was  on  the  bench.  Both  Marsh  and  Young  had  large 
farms  on  the  Ohio  River  and  were  men  of  wealth  for  those 
days.  St.  Clair  Young  left  a  large  amount  of  personal 
property  and  much  real  estate  in  Harrison  County,  also 
property  in  Meade  and  Hardin  counties,  Kentucky.  In 
the  will,  which  was  written  in  his  own  hand,  Young  recited 
that  one  of  his  sons-in-law,  John  Timberlake,  had  received 
more  than  his  wife's  share  of  the  estate,  which  should  be 
considered  as  an  advancement  in  adjusting  the  interests 
of  the  other  children,  and  that  as  he  disliked  him,  his  son- 
in-law  Timberlake  should  account  to  the  estate  for  all  over 


\j  \ 


30       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  above  what  Mrs.  Timberlake  would  take  as  an  heir. 
By  another  provision  a  trust  was  created  for  the  benefit  of 
Mrs.  Timberlake  and  her  minor  children.  But  in  the  event 
that  she  should  marry  again,  it  was  provided  she  should 
lose  certain  provisions  that  were  peculiarly  favorable  to  her. 
She  promptly  renounced  the  will  and  took  what  the  law 
allowed  in  such  cases.  It  was  a  complicated  lawsuit  from 
the  beginning,  and  was  not  finally  settled  until  August, 
1 86 1.  Stanley  Young  was  a  delicate,  silent  young  man, 
but  a  thorough  gentleman.  Unlike  Mr.  Gresham,  he  cher- 
ished a  resentment  against  the  slayer  of  his  father.  At 
first  it  was  expected,  or  rather  feared,  that  some  day  he 
might  resort  to  violence.  As  the  years  passed  and  nothing 
happened,  it  was  supposed  that  he  had  forgotten  his  malice, 
when,  suddenly,  in  1858,  during  a  term  of  court  at  Branden- 
burg, he  shot  Colonel  Marsh  dead  without  warning,  and  at 
the  risk  of  killing  his  friend  and  attorney,  Mr.  Gresham. 

As  a  lawyer,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  a  success  from  the 
start.  He  developed  at  once  into  a  good  advocate,  without 
the  florid  style  of  oratory  then  so  common.  He  possessed 
invective  and  could  be  impassioned,  but  in  the  main  he 
addressed  himself  to  the  reason  of  his  hearers,  whether  on 
the  bench,  on  the  jury,  or  at  the  hustings.  He  studied  the 
reports  of  the  English  common  law  and  chancery  courts, 
and  especially  the  decisions  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  and 
Chancellor  Kent,  and  attempted  to  acquire  their  exactness 
of  language  and  clearness  of  statement.  Simplicity  coupled 
with  clearness  is  the  most  powerful  weapon  in  debate.  He 
early  realized  the  flexibility  of  the  equity  principles  of 
Chancellor  Kent,  in  seeking  fraud  and  deceit,  and  was  able 
to  apply  them  at  the  bar  and  subsequently  on  the  bench. 
The  moral  side  never  escaped  him.  The  expression,  ' '  sound 
in  morals  as  in  law,"  afterward  used  from  the  bench,  some- 
times brought  criticism  on  him,  from  lawyers,  litigants,  and 
interests  whose  schemes  to  defraud  he  would  "cut  across 
lots"  to  circumvent. 


BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    AND    EARLY    YEARS      3! 

One  of  his  contemporaries,  a  Virginian  by  birth,  Judge 
W.  N.  Tracewell,  himself  a  successful  practitioner,  told  me 
that  up  to  the  time  Walter  Q.  Gresham  went  on  the  bench 
he  enjoyed  the  trial  of  a  lawsuit  more  than  any  man  he  ever 
knew.  As  a  young  man,  he  had  no  fear  of  meeting  the  older 
members  of  the  bar  and  was  put  up  against  them  by  his 
partner  and  his  old  preceptor. 

The  practice  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham  extended  to  a 
large  part  of  the  Second  Congressional  District,  which  was 
composed  of  the  counties  of  Clark,  Floyd,  Harrison,  Craw- 
ford, Perry,  Scott,  Orange,  and  Washington.  The  partners 
went  regularly  to  all  terms  of  court  in  Crawford,  Orange, 
Washington,  and  Perry  counties.  Judge  Slaughter  was 
born  in  Cory  don,  but  his  parents  were  Kentuckians.  The 
firm  also  had  business  in  Meade,  Hardin,  Breckinridge,  and 
Hancock  counties,  Kentucky,  and,  in  turn,  had  much  of 
the  business  of  the  Kentuckians  who  came  to  the  Harrison 
County  courts.  In  those  days,  there  was  great  commerce 
on  the  Ohio  River,  and  much  admiralty  business  fell  to  the 
firm  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham.  Mr.  Slaughter  was  of  a 
delicate  constitution,  and  as  he  disliked  traveling,  the  cir- 
cuit rounds  of  this  work  devolved  on  the  younger  man,  and 
it  was  to  his  liking.  His  old  preceptor,  Judge  Porter,  em- 
ployed him  to  look  after  much  of  his  business  and  to  try  or 
assist  in  the  trial  of  all  cases  on  the  circuit.  He  followed 
the  business  of  the  firm  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State 
and  in  the  Federal  courts  at  Indianapolis.  And  as  a  young 
housekeeper,  I  know  their  practice  was  remunerative. 


CHAPTER   II 
THE    "UNDERGROUND   RAILROAD" 


PERSONAL  LIBERTY  LAWS  —  THE  SOMMERSET  OR  NEGRO 
CASE" — MAN  STEALING  ACT  AND  JOINT  RESOLUTION  —  FUGI- 
TIVE SLAVE  LAWS  —  PRIGG  CASE  —  CALIFORNIA  GOLD  RUSH  — 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS  HOLDS  MASSACHUSETTS  OUT  OF  THE 
UNION  BUT  WEBSTER  ENFORCES  THE  NATIONAL  LAW  — 
WALTER     Q.     GRESHAM     NO     ABOLITIONIST. 

WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM  was  in  politics  before  he  was 
admitted  to  practice  at  the  bar. 
From  Louisville  the  Ohio  River  runs  to  the  southwest, 
and  then  to  the  northwest,  describing  almost  half  a  circle, 
only  thirty  miles  across,  but  sixty-four  miles  around.  In 
this  big  bend,  carved  out,  as  it  seems,  from  the  State  of 
Kentucky,  is  the  largest  part  of  Harrison  County,  Indiana. 
Corydon,  the  county  seat,  farther  south  than  Louisville,  is 
fourteen  miles  from  the  river  at  almost  ail  points.  A  road 
leads  south  from  Corydon  to  Mauckport,  the  "seaport" 
of  Harrison  County,  as  it  was  facetiously  called.  The 
Mauckport  Road  was  one  of  the  first  highways  constructed 
in  southern  Indiana.  Then  two  miles  up  the  river  bank  it 
runs  to  the  ferry  crossing  to  Brandenburg,  the  county  seat 
of  Meade  County,  Kentucky.  This  large  river  frontage  and 
other  roads  converging  from  the  river  into  the  Mauckport 
Road  and  into  Corydon 's  principal  north  and  south  street, 
from  which  a  road  leads  north  to  Salem,  the  county  seat  of 
Washington  County,  and  crossing  the  New  Albany  and 
Paoli  Pike,  made  the  main  street  of  Corydon  the  principal 
thoroughfare  of  the  "Underground  Railroad."  Two  and  a 
half  miles  south  of  Corydon,  on  the  Mauckport  Road,  "  Bill " 
Crawford  maintained  the  first  "station  "  on  the  Underground 

32 


THE     "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD"  33 

Railroad,  north  of  the  river.  His  so-called  farm,  in  the 
hills  and  hollows,  was  admirably  adapted  for  concealing  a 
fugitive.  He  would  keep  a  negro  a  week  if  necessary,  it 
was  said;  and  he  did  not  finally  go  out  of  business  until 
after  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  The  next  "station" 
north  was  at  John  Rankin's,  fifteen  miles  north  of  Cory  don, 
near  Fredericksburg,  on  the  New  Albany  and  Paoli  Pike. 
Thence  different  roads  were  taken  north  to  the  Cincinnati 
and  St.  Louis  Railroad. 

From  the  earliest  time,  up  that  Mauckport  Road  came 
the  kidnapper  and  the  fugitive.  The  anti-slavery  people 
always  claimed  the  kidnapper  was  in  the  advance. 

While  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  Corydon  and 
Harrison  County  considered  it  disreputable  and  dishonora- 
ble to  aid  a  fugitive  slave,  young  men  fond  of  hazard  and 
adventure  considered  it  great  sport  to  aid  a  negro's  flight 
from  "  Bill "  Crawford's  to  John  Rankin's.  Public  sentiment 
was  with  those  men  in  Corydon  who  made  it  a  practice  to 
catch  runaway  negroes.  The  rewards  ranged  from  $100  to 
$250,  according  to  the  value  of  the  fugitive.  Captures 
occurred  right  in  the  town.  Sometimes  the  negroes  were 
sent  through  the  town  late  at  night,  unguarded,  on  foot. 
It  was  then  they  were  caught.  But  under  guard  of  the 
Corydon  boys,  the  fugitives  went  through  in  safety.  There 
were  men  in  Harrison  County  who,  in  collusion  with  men  in 
Kentucky,  would  encourage  a  negro  to  run  away,  that  they 
might  recapture  him  and  then  secure  a  reward.  Names 
might  be  mentioned,  but  it  is  not  necessary. 

Around  Corydon,  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  west  of  "  Bill " 
Crawford's,  but  coming  back  to  the  Salem  Road  on  the 
north,  was  another  branch  of  the  underground  line.  It 
was  through  "Cousin  Zack"  Pennington's  farm.  The  way 
was  pointed  out  by  Pilot  Knob,  rising  above  the  hills  two 
miles  west  of  Corydon,  but  discernible  for  miles.  "Zack" 
Pennington,  a  son  of  "Uncle  Dennis"  Pennington,  was, 
in  1848,  a  mature  man  with  a  growing  family.     He  defied 


34       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

public  sentiment  and  his  father's  advice  and  received  the 
fugitives  in  his  own  home.  With  Zack's  rifle  and  Zack's 
two  boys,  Dixon  at  first,  and  Matthew  later  on,  at  his  heels 
to  carry  the  game,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  scoured  the  woods 
west  of  Cory  don  and  "always  brought  home  plenty  of 
squirrels  for  supper,"  said  "Mat,"  in  speaking  of  those  early 
days.  Dick  at  seventeen  and  Mat  at  fourteen  were  among 
the  first  Union  volunteers.  Mat  had  to  run  off,  as  many 
another  boy,  and  lied  about  his  age  to  get  in. 

When  Walter  Q.  Gresham  first  became  minute  clerk 
for  the  board  of  county  commissioners,  his  legal  guardian, 
Samuel  J.  Wright,  the  county  auditor,  was  encouraging  the 
boys  on  the  ' '  Underground  Railroad. ' '  But  the  boy  did  not 
lose  his  head.  Headstrong  as  he  was,  afterwards  criticised, 
it  was  merely  the  courage  of  his  convictions;  no  man  was 
more  amenable  to  reason,  deferential  to  the  wise  and  hum- 
ble, or  more  often  sought  advice  and  information.  Dennis 
Pennington  was  still  dispensing  justice  as  a  justice  of  the 
peace.  Mellowing  with  age  the  old  man  was  one  of  the  best 
informed  of  men  on  the  workings  of  our  dual  form  of  govern- 
ment. Controversies  that  were  beyond  his  jurisdiction  as  a 
justice  were  submitted  to  him  as  an  arbitrator.  The  first 
official  mention  of  Dennis  Pennington  is  the  record  that,  on 
July  10,  1807,1  Governor  Harrison  appointed  him  a  justice 
of  the  peace  in  Clark  County.  As  a  territorial  magistrate  he 
possessed  almost  as  much  power  as  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court — he  decided  whether  a  man  was  free  or  slave.2    He 

1  Dennis  Pennington  was  in  the  Indiana  state  legislature  as  a  senator  at  the  sessions  of 
1816,  1817,  1818,  1810;  then  he  was  out  two  years.  He  came  back  and  served  in  the  House 
during  the  sessions  of  1822  and  1823.  There  was  no  session  in  1824.  Then  he  was  in  the 
Senate  in  1825  and  1826.  The  session  of  1827  he  missed.  The  sessions  of  1828  and  1829 
he  was  in  the  House.  The  sessions  of  1830,  1831,  and  1832  he  was  in  the  Senate.  Then 
he  was  out  until  1842,  when  he  came  back  and  was  a  member  of  the  House  in  1843,  1844, 
and  1845. 

Oliver  H.  Smith,  afterwards  a  United  States  senator  from  Indiana,  said:  "I  became 
acquainted  with  Dennis  Pennington  when  we  were  members  of  the  legislature  at  Corydon  in 
1823.  The  journals  of  the  state  library  are  full  of  the  acts  in  a  representative  capacity  of 
Dennis  Pennington.     He  was  a  warm  personal  and  political  friend  of  Henry  Clay." 

2  Section  3  of  the  Act  of  February  12,  1793:  "  That  when  a  person  held  to  labor  in  any 
of  the  United  States,  or  in  either  of  the  territories  on  the  Northwest  or  South  of  the  river  Ohio, 
under  the  laws  thereof,  shall  escape  into  any  other  of  the  said  states  or  territories,  the  person 


THE     "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD"  35 

liked  power  and  he  knew  how  to  wield  it.  In  his  judicial  and 
legislative  capacity  he  studied  due  process  of  law  as  written 
in  the  ordinance  for  the  organization  of  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, and  the  Sommerset  case,  that  he  might  properly 
construe  the  fugitive  slave  clause  of  the  National  Constitu- 
tion and  the  fugitive  slave  law  that  President  Washington 
signed.  In  his  long  legislative  career,  Dennis  Pennington 
had  accumulated  a  large  library  of  session  laws;  revised 
statutes,  and  congressional  records,1  and  had  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  men  and  events  that  is  not  in  the  books.  He 
had  a  pamphlet  copy  of  the  arguments  of  the  lawyers  and 
the  decision  of  Lord  Mansfield,  June  22,  1772,  in  the  case 
of  James  Sommerset  vs.  Charles  Stewart,  or  "The  Negro 
Case,"  before  it  got  into  the  law  reports.  Many  a  night  the 
school  boy,  apprentice  to  the  law,  and  law  student,  spent  at 
"Old  Uncle"  Dennis's  home.  In  the  evening,  when  there 
was  no  farmer  going  out  with  whom  he  might  ride,  he  easily 
covered  the  four  miles  on  foot,  and  rode  in  the  next  morning. 
"He  milked  me  dry, ' '  the  old  man  said,  in  telling  of  these  visits. 
It  was  "Old  Uncle  Dennis"  who  first  put  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  to  reading  that  second  great  declaration  of  human 
rights,  the  ordinance  for  the  organization  and  government 
of  the  Northwest  Territory,  and  pointed  out  that  it  embraced 
what  the  first  did  not,  the  poor  degraded  African,  or  "the 

to  whom  such  labor  or  service  may  be  due,  his  agent  or  attorney,  is  hereby  empowered  to 
seize  or  arrest  such  fugitive  from  labor,  and  take  him  or  her  before  any  Judge  of  the  Circuit 
or  District  Courts  of  the  United  States  residing  or  living  within  the  state,  or  before  any  magis- 
trate of  any  county  or  city  or  town  corporate,  wherein  such  seizure  or  arrest  shall  be  made. 
And  upon  proof  satisfactory  to  such  judge  or  magistrate,  either  by  oral  testimony  or  affidavit 
taken  before  and  certified  by  a  magistrate  of  any  such  state  or  territory,  that  the  person  so 
seized  or  arrested,  doth,  under  the  laws  of  the  state  or  territory  from  which  he  or  she  fled, 
owe  service  or  labor  to  the  person  claiming  him  or  her,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  judge  or 
magistrate  to  give  a  certificate  to  such  claimant,  his  agent  or  attorney,  which  shall  be  suffi- 
cient warrant  for  removing  the  said  fugitive  from  labor  to  the  state  or  territory  from  which 
he  or  she  fled." 

Section  4  of  the  Judiciary  Act  of  Sept.  24,  1789,  which  organized  the  Supreme,  Circuit, 
and  District  Courts  of  the  United  States,  made  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  members 
of  the  Circuit  Courts. 

1  January  19,  1846,  at  the  adjournment  of  the  thirteenth  session  of  the  Indiana  legislature, 
the  House  adopted  the  following  resolution: 

"  Resolved  unanimously :  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  tendered  to  the  venerable 
gentleman  from  Harrison  County,  Dennis  Pennington,  for  his  kind  and  fatherly  treatment 
of  the  members  of  the  House  individually  during  the  present  session  and  for  his  long  and 
faithful  service  to  the  state  during  the  whole  period  of  its  existence." 


36        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

nigger,"1  as  the  old  man  called  him.  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
was  with  Uncle  Dennis  when  he  died  in  September,  1854, 
and  he  often  remarked  that  he  never  forgot  the  clearness  of 
vision,  the  fortitude  and  faith,  the  old  Virginian  exhibited 
to  the  last. 

Judge  Porter,  from  whom,  as  has  been  noted,  Mr.  Gres- 
ham obtained  his  technical  legal  education,  had  kept  up  a 
most  excellent  brief  on  the  subject  of  slavery  which  he  had 
started  in  his  legislative  career.  It  commenced  with  the 
Sommerset  or  "The  Negro  Case,"  and  Section  4  of  Article  4 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  On  its  purely 
political  side  there  was — 

(1)  The  pro-slavery  side  or  Calhoun  theory,  with  all 
constitutional  provisions,  legislation,  and  decisions  to  sup- 
port it; 

(2)  The  Abolitionist's  view  as  developed  by  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  ablest  lawyer,  perhaps,  of  his  time; 

(3)  The  Free  Soil  theory; 

(4)  The  statesman's  side,  that  of  Clay  and  Webster. 
According  to  the  record,  as  the  lawyers  say,  in  1769 

Charles  Stewart,  a  Virginian,  took  one  of  his  slaves,  James 
Sommerset,  to  England.  Lord  Mansfield's  antipathy  was 
especially  to  Massachusetts  and  this  may  be  the  reason  why 
the  gossip  was  that  Sommerset  was  a  Massachusetts  and  not 
a  Virginia  slave.  The  case  was  elaborately  argued  and  fully 
reported,  first  by  printed  pamphlet,  then  in  1774  in  Lofts' 
Reports,  and  again  in  18 14  under  the  title  of  "The  Negro 
Case"  (20  Howell  State  Trials  1).  It  was  not  fair,  the  pro- 
slavery  lawyer  said,  for  the  reporter,  years  after  the  decision, 
to  publish  an  elaboration  of  Hargrave's  argument  that  was 
not  delivered  in  court,  and  besides,  Mansfield  was  a  partisan 
and  not  a  fair  judge.     Be  this  as  it  may,  it  was  the  lawyer's 

1  Section  6  of  the  ordinance  of  July  13,  1787:  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  invol- 
untary servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof 
the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted;  provided  always,  that  any  person  escaping  into  the 
same,  from  whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed  in  any  one  of  the  original  states,  such 
fugitive  may  be  lawfully  reclaimed  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his  or  her  labor  or 
service  aforesaid." 


THE     "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD"  37 

method  of  hitting  at  the  British  Empire  and  the  Ameri- 
can Republic  because  they  still  recognized  slavery. 

But  even  in  the  pamphlets  and  in  Lofts'  Reports  there 
is  practically  every  argument  against  slavery.  There  are 
there  the  natural,  inherent,  inalienable  rights  of  man  as 
first  set  forth  by  Montesquieu,  Vattel,  Locke,  and  the  other 
philosophers.  The  history  of  slavery  from  antiquity  and 
its  abolition  is  traced.  And  it  was  shown  by  Blackstone 
how  that  species  of  slavery  known  as  "  white  villenage" 
had  long  been  abolished  in  England.  There  were  the  propo- 
sitions: "As  soon  as  a  man  puts  foot  on  English  soil  he 
is  free,"  and  "The  same  is  the  law  of  France."1 

This  was  the  case : 

On  December  3,  1771,  affidavits  were  made  by  Thomas 
Wilkin,  Elizabeth  Cade,  and  John  Marlow,  that  James 
Sommerset,  a  negro,  was  confined  in  irons  on  board  a  ship 
called  the  Mary  Ann,  John  Knowles,  commander,  lying 
in  the  Thames,  and  bound  for  Jamaica.  Lord  Mansfield, 
the  celebrated  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Kings  Bench, 
the  highest  common  law  court  in  the  Kingdom,  by  a  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  commanded  Captain  Knowles  to  produce 
the  body  of  Sommerset,  with  the  cause  of  his  detention. 
December  9,  Captain  Knowles  answered  that  he  held  Som- 
merset as  the  negro  slave  of  Charles  Stewart,  a  Virginian, 
who  had  delivered  Sommerset  into  his  custody  to  be  carried 
to  Jamaica  and  there  sold  as  a  slave.  It  further  appeared 
that  Sommerset  had  been  apprehended  in  the  wilds  of  Africa 
by  slave  dealers,  carried  to  Virginia,  and  there  sold  to  Stew- 
art, a  planter.  That  having  business  in  London,  Stewart 
brought  Sommerset  along  as  his  valet,  but  while  in  England, 
Sommerset  ran  away,  was  apprehended  by  force  of  arms, 
and  put  on  board  the  Mary  Ann. 

At  first  Lord  Mansfield  recommended  an  adjustment,  as 
it  was  suggested  on  the  record  before  him  that  there  were  at 
that  time  "  14,000  or  15,000  African  runaways  and  valets  and 
servants  in  England"  who  would  be  affected  by  his  ruling. 

1  See  page  8 1 . 


38       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  ever  were  as 
many  as  14,000  negroes  in  England.  A  settlement  failing, 
the  questions  were  referred  to  the  full  bench  for  argument. 
June  10,  1772,  the  argument  ended.  Again  Lord  Mans- 
field advised  an  adjustment — even  suggested  an  appli- 
cation to  Parliament  —  and  in  concluding  his  remarks 
said:  "If  the  parties  will  have  judgment,  'fiat  justitia,  mat 
ccBlum'  —  'Let  justice  be  done,  though  the  heavens  should 
fall.'  " 

June  22,  1772,  his  lordship  delivered  the  opinion  of  the 
full  bench.  It  was  short  and  to  the  point,  only  three  pages 
in  length.  It  was  the  kind,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  said  years 
afterwards,  when  on  the  bench  himself,  ' '  that  produces  the 
conviction  that  the  court  at  least  believes  what  it  says." 
His  lordship  concluded:  "The  state  of  slavery  is  of  such  a 
nature  that  it  is  incapable  of  being  introduced  on  any 
reasons,  moral  or  political,  but  only  by  positive  law.  .  .  . 
It  is  so  odious  that  nothing  can  be  suffered  to  support  it 
but  positive  law.  ...  I  cannot  say  this  case  is  allowed 
or  approved  by  the  law  of  England,  and  therefore,  the 
black  must  be  discharged."1 

Eleven  years  before  Hargrave's  argument  and  Lord 
Mansfield's  opinion,  an  American  lawyer/James  Otis,  for 
the  first  time  in  a  practical  way  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  colonial  crown  judges  the  natural,  inherent,  and  inalien- 
able rights  of  man  as  set  forth  by  the  philosophers  Vattel 
and  Montesquieu-  It  was  in  a  lawsuit  in  February,  1761. 
"Then  and  there  was  the  child  Independence  born." 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  then  a  schoolboy  eighteen  years 
of  age.  A  score  of  times  I  have  heard  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
mention  James  Otis  where  he  mentioned  Thomas  Jefferson 
once.  The  popular,  historical,  and  even  judicial  miscon- 
ception that  Otis  was  simply  declaiming  against  the  writs 
of  assistance  was  not  Walter  Q.  Gresham's  as  a  law  student, 
and  never  afterwards.  In  the  chapter  in  this  book  on  the 
Whiskey  Ring  and  the  Counselman  case,  which  involved 

1  See  pages  ioo  to  102. 


THE     "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD"  39 

the  virility  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act,  it  will  appear 
that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  did  not  at 
first  comprehend  the  government  which  Otis  conceived. 
It  was  the  trade  and  navigation  laws  of  1 661-1663  f°r 
the  first  time  attempted  to  be  enforced  in  the  colonies 
that  Otis  attacked  as  being  in  conflict  with  the  natural 
rights  of  the  Boston  merchant.  If  the  laws  were  valid, 
Otis  did  not  dispute  the  right  and  duty  of  the  colonial 
judges  to  issue  the  writs  of  assistance  authorizing  the 
customs  officers  to  search  warehouses  and  dwellings  for 
smuggled  goods.  These  principles  of  Vattel,  Montesquieu, 
or  Otis,  as  we  may  choose  to  call  them,  percolated  to  the 
common  people.  The  "siners"  of  the  Mecklenburg  declara- 
tion of  independence  applied  them  before  Thomas  Jefferson 
did.  Playing  both  ends — first  setting  forth  the  natural, 
inalienable  right  of  men  —  one  of  the  plaints  of  Jefferson 
against  the  British  king  was,  "He  has  stirred  up  insurrec- 
tions among  our  slaves."  Without  that  grievance,  the 
American  Revolution  might  have  been  a  failure.  To  re- 
verse the  Sommerset  case  the  fugitive  slave  clause  of  the 
American  Constitution  was  adopted. 

Long  before  our  independence  was  assured,  such  is  the 
effect  of  precedent  in  the  administration  of  the  law,  American 
judges  had  taken  notice  of  Mansfield's  opinion.  And  then 
the  legislatures  and  constitutional  conventions  took  it  up. 
March  1,  1780,  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania  by  an  act  of  their 
legislature  abolished  slavery,  but  out  of  consideration  for 
the  members  of  the  Continental  Congress,  this  legislation 
provided  that  during  the  sitting  of  the  Congress — it  was 
then  in  session  at  Philadelphia — its  members  might  be 
attended  by  their  slaves  as  servants.  A  few  months  later, 
Massachusetts,  by  a  bill  of  rights  in  her  constitution,  soon  to 
be  followed  by  the  other  New  England  Colonies  or  States, 
without  any  qualification,  adopted  the  rule  that  there  could 
not  be  property  in  man.  Under  the  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration, there  was  no  provision  for  the  return  of  fugitive 


40       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

slaves.  When  the  convention  met  in  1787,  to  provide  for 
a  national  constitution,  the  most  important  question  was 
that  of  fugitive  slaves. 

It  was  to  modify  this  rule  of  the  Sommerset  case  in  so 
far  as  it  applied  to  fugitive  slaves  in  order  to  make  a  more 
perfect  Union,1  that  Section  4  of  Article  4  was  inserted  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  viz. : 

No  person,  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  state,  under  the 
laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any 
law  or  re^jlfltion  therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor; 
bill  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  may  be  due. 

Soon  the  construction  of  this  section  was  brought  to 
Washington's  attention  as  President.  The  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  applied  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia  for  the 
return  of  three  Virginians  who  had  come  into  Pennsylvania 
and  kidnapped  a  negro,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Pennsylvania  act  of  March  1,  1790,  and  carried  him  off  to 
Virginia.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  refused  to  surrender 
the  Virginians,  and  thereupon  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania applied  to  President  Washington  for  redress. 

While  Washington  was  a  large  slaveholder,  and  as  some 
of  his  biographers  say,  resorted  to  strategy  to  get  his  house- 
hold servants  back  to  Virginia  when,  in  1 790,  the  government 
was  moved  from  New  York,2  where  slavery  still  was  lawful, 
to  Philadelphia,  and  some  of  Attorney- General  Randolph's 
slaves  claimed  their  freedom  under  the  Pennsylvania  stat- 
utes, according  to  Dennis  Pennington,  Washington  did  not 
then  adopt  the  construction  that  was  at  that  time  advanced 
and  afterward  obtained  of  the  words  "shall  be  delivered  up 
on  claim,"  viz.,  that  the  master  could  walk  into  a  crowd  and 
lay  his  hands  on  a  negro,  claimed  to  be  a  runaway,  and  lead 
him  or  her  home  like  a  horse. 

1  Justice  Story  in  Prigg  M.  Pennsylvania,  16  Peters  539.  decided  in  1842. 

2  July  16,  1790,  Congress  by  act  ordered  the  seat  of  government  transferred  to  Phila- 
delphia, there  to  remain  until  December  1,  1800,  then  to  the  District  of  Columbia. 


THE  "UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD*'     41 

The  fugitive  slave  law  that  Attorney-General  Randolph 
drew  and  Washington  signed  February  18,  1793,  provided 
that  the  alleged  runaway  should  have  a  fair  trial  in  the 
county  in  the  State  where  he  was  apprehended,  or,  to  state 
it  more  nearly,  it  provided  that  the  States  and  the  State 
judicial  officers  as  well  as  the  national  officers  should  en- 
force the  national  law,  and  not  any  man  who  could  get  his 
hands  on  the  negro  without  a  breach  of  the  peace.  And  the 
record  is  that  every  Southern  jurist,  Bushrod  Washington 
among  them,  leaned  to  a  liberal  construction  of  Washing- 
ton's law,  and  to  limiting  the  scope  of  Section  4  of  Article  4 
of  the  Constitution. 

The  record  is  that  at  the  first  session  of  the  Indiana  State 
legislature,  which  convened  the  first  Monday  in  December, 
18 16,  Dennis  Pennington  "sat  in"  as  a  leader,  as  a  senator 
from  Harrison  County.  He  drafted  and  led  in  passing  an 
act  entitled  "An  Act  to  Prevent  Man  Stealing,"  which  was 
approved  December  17,  1816.  While  this  statute  imposed 
penalties  for  stealing  free  negroes,  there  were  the  same  pains 
and  penalties  for  aiding  the  escape  of  fugitive  slaves. 

At  the  18 18  session  of  the  Indiana  legislature,  Dennis 
Pennington  supplemented  his  man-stealing  act  with  what 
was  known  as  the  Joint  Resolution  of  December  31,  18 18: 

Whereas,  sundry  persons  destitute  of  every  principle  of 
humanity  are  in  the  habit  of  seizing  and  carrying  off  and  selling 
as  slaves  free  persons  of  color  who  are  or  have  been  for  a  long 
time  inhabitants  of  this  state,    .    .    . 

Therefore,  most  solemnly  disavowing  all  interference  between 
those  persons  who  may  be  fugitives  from  service  and  those  citi- 
zens of  other  states,  whenever  such  claim  is  legally  established, 
we  deem  it  our  just  right  to  demand  the  proofs  of  such  claim  to 
service  according  to  our  laws: 

Resolved,  that  our  senators  in  Congress  be  instructed  and 
our  representatives  be  requested  to  use  their  exertions  to  prevent 
Congress  from  enacting  any  law,  the  provisions  of  which  will 
deprive  any  person,  resident  of  this  state,  claimed  as  a  fugitive 


42       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUlttTIN    GRESSAM 

from  service,  of  legal  constitutional  trial,  according  to  the  laws 
of  this  state,  before  they  shall  be  removed  therefrom. 

At  the  November  term,  1818,  of  the  Harrison  County- 
Circuit  Court,  Dennis  Pennington  caused  three  Kentuckians 
to  be  indicted  for  violating  the  provisions  of  his  man-stealing 
act.  In  the  night  time  they  broke  open  the  dwelling  house 
of  Susan,  a  woman  of  color,  and  forcibly  carried  her  off  to 
Kentucky.  Governor  Jonathan  Jennings  made  a  requisi- 
tion of  Governor  Gabriel  Slaughter  (kin  of  the  man  who 
became  Mr.  Gresham's  first  law  partner)  of  Kentucky,  for 
the  return  of  the  indicted  men  to  Indiana  for  trial.  One 
count  in  the  indictment  was  based  on  the  Federal  statute. 

For  several  years  the  correspondence  went  on  between 
the  two  governors.  Finally  Governor  Slaughter  refused  to 
honor  the  requisition.  For  aught  that  appeared  in  the 
papers,  he  said,  the  Kentuckians  may  have  exercised  their 
constitutional  right  of  seizing  their  runaway  slaves  the  same 
as  they  would  their  runaway  horses,  and  therefore  no  crime 
had  been  committed. 

March  26,  1826,  Pennsylvania  amended  her  statute  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  and  to  prevent  kidnapping,  by  im- 
posing certain  penalties,  including  imprisonment,  on  all  who 
removed  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  negroes  claimed  as 
runaways,  without  first  securing  from  some  judicial  officer 
a  warrant  authorizing  that  removal.  At  the  hearing  to 
be  held  before  the  warrant  was  to  issue,  the  claimant,  the 
master,  could  not  be  a  witness. 

Speaking  of  this  statute,  Dennis  Pennington  said: 
"Little  Joe  Story  decided  all  our  fugitive  slave  laws,  in- 
cluding that  which  President  Washington  signed,  uncon- 
stitutional." 1 

Little  noticed  and  not  understood  by  the  historians,  but 
first  brought  to  the  attention  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham  by 
Dennis  Pennington  and  discussed  with  Judge  Otto,  who,  we 
have  shown,  had  been  bred  to  the  law  in  Pennsylvania,  and 

1  16  Peters  539. 


THE  "UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD**     43 

with  his  legal  preceptor,  was  the  construction  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  1842,  in  an  opinion  by  Justice 
Story,  put  on  the  fugitive  slave  section  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution in  this  celebrated  Prigg  case,  and  the  action  of 
the  Abolitionists  and  some  of  the  Free  States  under  it. 

An  indictment  was  returned  in  York  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, against  Prigg  and  others  for  removing  Margaret 
Morgan,  a  fugitive  slave,  to  Maryland,  without  a  warrant 
as  the  Pennsylvania  statute  provided.  The  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania  upheld  Prigg 's  conviction,  and  then  the 
case  went  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  where 
it  was  argued  by  the  respective  attorney-generals  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Maryland,  and  other  eminent  counsel.  It 
was  really  a  controversy  between  the  two  States.  And 
after  all,  there  is  some  reason  for  the  phrase,  "The  war 
between  the  States/' 

In  the  teeth  of  the  argument  that  in  the  Free  States  color 
raised  no  presumption  of  servitude,  of  the  constitutional 
provisions  that  "no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty, 
or  property,  without  due  process  of  law";  that  the  people 
shall  be  secured  in  their  persons  against  unreasonable 
seizures;  and  that  the  word  "claim"  was  used  in  the  sense 
of  "a  challenge  of  ownership,"  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  reversed  Prigg 's  conviction,  and  in  an  opinion 
by  Justice  Story  said  that  the  constitutional  provision  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  namely,  Section  4  of  Article  4,  was  self- 
executing  when  the  master  could  secure  the  possession  of  his 
slave  without  a  breach  of  the  peace,  that  is,  that  in  the  Free 
States  the  master  could  lay  hands  on  his  slave  the  same  as 
on  his  horse  and  then  could  lead  the  slave  home  the  same  as 
he  could  his  horse,  using  all  force  necessary.  This  opinion 
further  held  the  Pennsylvania  statute  unconstitutional, 
which  required  the  claimant  of  a  fugitive  slave,  after  he  had 
secured  possession  of  the  slave,  to  apply  to  a  State  officer 
for  a  certificate  before  he  could  remove  the  slave  from  the 
State ;  that  the  power  to  enforce  the  constitutional  provision 


44       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  the  United  States  was  exclusively  in  Congress ;  that  in  so 
far  as  the  act  of  1793  attempted  by  the  machinery  of  the 
Federal  courts  and  Federal  officers  to  enforce  the  provision 
for  the  return  of  the  fugitive  slaves  it  was  constitutional, 
but  it  was  unconstitutional  in  imposing  duties  on  the  State  and 
State  officers  in  the  rendition  of  slaves.  Not  only  this,  this 
case  decided  that  a  State  might  by  law  prohibit  its  officers 
and  agents  from  taking  any  action  to  enforce  Section  4  of 
Article  4  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  a  dissenting  opinion,  pointed  out 
the  absurdity  of  a  State  commanding  its  officers  to  refrain 
from  enforcing  one  of  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  a  measure  that  had  made  the  union  of 
the  States  under  that  Constitution  possible. 

Although  the  court  proceeded  to  a  decision  on  the  theory, 
as  Judge  Story  said,  that  it  would  make  such  an  exposition 
of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  as  would  ' '  put  at  rest  the 
conflict  of  opinion ' '  on  the  question  which  involved  ' '  as 
delicate  and  important  considerations  as  had  ever  come 
before  it,"  the  Prigg  case  proved  a  wedge  with  which  the 
Abolitionists  helped  split  the  Union.  At  the  succeeding 
session  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature  in  1843,  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  Abolitionist  lawyer,  forced  Massachusetts  to 
pass  an  act  prohibiting  its  executive  and  judicial  officers 
from  performing  any  acts  in  enforcing  the  pro-slavery  clause 
of  the  Constitution.  The  Vermont,  Connecticut,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Pennsylvania  legislatures  followed  the  lead 
of  Massachusetts.  These  acts,  as  amended,  became  known 
as  the  Personal  Liberty  Laws.  The  act  of  February  18, 
1793,  stripped  of  most  of  its  provisions,  and  supplemented 
by  the  Personal  Liberty  Laws  as  amended,  left  the  slave 
owner  practically  where  he  was  under  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation. In  1850  there  were  500  of  Wendell  Phillips's 
clients,  fugitive  slaves  living  in  security  in  and  about 
Boston. 

It  was  the  Prigg  case  and  the  discovery  of   gold  in 


THE        UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD  45 

California  that  gave  us  the  Compromise  of  1850,  otherwise 
we  might  have  had  war  then. 

The  slave  power  counted  on  the  900,000  square  miles 
of  territory  acquired  from  Mexico — for  that  was  why  the 
Mexican  War  was  begun  —  becoming  slave  territory.  John 
P.  Hale,  the  Free  Soil  Democrat,  objected  to  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  or  the  3  6°  30'  line,  to  the 
coast,  because  it  carried  with  it  the  implication  that  slaves 
should  be  recognized  south  of  it,  and  then  the  discovery  of 
gold  in  the  Sacramento  River  spoiled  it  all.  Immediately 
there  was  a  rush  to  California  from  all  over  the  Union  and 
from  many  parts  of  the  commercial  world.  Soon  the  Cali- 
fornians  called  a  convention  —  at  which  were  many  dele- 
gates from  the  South, — adopted  a  free  constitution  which 
was  ratified  on  a  referendum,  elected  a  set  of  State  officers, 
two  congressmen,  and  two  senators,  and  began  hammering 
on  the  doors  of  Congress  for  admission  into  the  Union. 
The  pro- slavery  people  threatened  to  secede  if  California 
was  admitted  as  a  Free  State.  To  that  end,  Mississippi, 
in  the  Summer  of  1849,  called  a  convention  to  meet  at 
Nashville  in  June,  1850.  In  1863,  at  Natchez,  I  sat  with 
my  husband  at  the  dinner  table  with  Judge  McMurran,1 
who  had  been  a  delegate  from  Mississippi  to  that  Nashville 
convention.  Never,  said  Judge  McMurran,  did  the  mass 
of  the  large  slaveholders  want  the  issue  to  go  to  war;  com- 
promise always  was  the  plan. 

Two  miles  beyond  Pennington's  Chapel,  to  the  north- 
west, and  farther  out  on  the  Vincennes  Road,  stands  to-day 
the  brick  house  close  to  the  big  spring  that  succeeded  the 
log  house  on  the  site  where  John  Davis,  Walter  Q.  Gres- 
ham's  maternal  grandfather,  first  settled.  Thither  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  was  first  carried,  when  a  toddling  infant,  by  his 
mother.  The  mother  rode  horseback  with  the  boy  behind. 
A  natural  "woodsman,"  a  quality  she  transmitted,  she  cut 
across  the  country,  leaving  Cory  don  to  the  south.  Thence, 
from  Pennington's  Chapel,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  often  went 

iSee  pages  248  and  282. 

4 


\J 


46       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

after  he  was  transplanted  to  Cory  don.  After  our  marriage 
I  visited  in  that  brick  house.  It  was  then  occupied  by 
Uncle  Tom  Davis  and  his  family.  To-day  it  is  the  home 
of  one  of  the  fourth  generation. 

Among  the  California  gold  seekers  were  Anthony  and 
Anderson  Davis,  two  of  the  brothers  of  the  mother  of 
Walter  Q.  Gresham.  Anderson  Davis  died  early.  Anthony 
turned  all  his  resources  into  cash  and  moved  his  family  to 
the  Willamette  Valley  in  Oregon,  where  his  descendants 
have  prospered. 

An  ex-office  holder  under  Andrew  Jackson,  Anthony 
Davis  remained  a  Democrat  to  his  death.  On  behalf  of  the 
Gresham  family,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  became  the  corres- 
pondent with  Uncle  Anthony.  It  was  not  gold  the  boy  was 
interested  in,  and  Uncle  Anthony  wrote  back  to  his  brother 
Tom  that  the  boy  had  a  wonderful  grasp  on  the  slavery 
question,  and  a  bright  future  before  him. 

Uncles  Henry,  John,  and  Robert  Davis,  with  their  fam- 
ilies, lived  on  sections  adjoining  the  John  Davis  homestead. 
Aunt  Betsy,  married  to  Enoch  Martin,  Aunt  Mahaly  to 
George  Seacat,  and  Aunt  Nancy  to  David  A.  Askren,  lived 
with  their  growing  families  near  by.  Aunt  Polly,  married 
to  Abraham  Stevens,  lived  just  over  the  line  in  Washington 
County,  not  far  from  Fredericksburg,  and  close  to  John 
Rankin,  the  keeper  of  the  first  station  on  the  Underground 
Railroad  north  of  Cory  don.  On  north  in  those  formative 
days,  crossing  the  main  line  of  the  Vincennes  Road  at  Han- 
cock's Chapel,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  rode  one  of  Uncle  Tom's 
horses  to  visit  Uncle  Abe  and  Aunt  Polly.  Uncle  Abe  was 
then  classed  as  an  Abolitionist,  while  the  Martins  were  all 
"suspects." 

Older  by  twenty  years  than  Dennis  Pennington,  John 
Davis,  the  grandfather,  lived  to  be  almost  one  hundred, 
dying  in  the  early  '50's.  From  the  time  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
knew  him,  he  lived  with  and  was  cared  for  by  Aunt  Nancy. 
Although  his  strong  anti-slavery  views  caused  him  to  seek, 


THE     "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD  47 

with  his  growing  family,  the  wilds  of  Indiana  Territory, 
John  Davis  was  a  considerate,  charitable,  and  kindly  man, 
and  to  the  last  a  Democrat.  But  he  was  a  strong  Union 
man,  and  he  read  Daniel  Webster's  speeches.  His  sons, 
Thomas,  Henry,  and  Robert,  joined  the  Republican  party, 
while  Anthony,  Anderson,  and  John  adhered  to  the  Demo- 
cratic. Several  brothers  of  John  Davis,  great-uncles  of 
Walter  Q.  Gresham,  with  their  growing  families,  settled  in 
that  neighborhood.  Many  of  the  offspring  migrated  to 
Illinois,  Iowa,  Kansas,  and  Missouri.  At  one  time  one  of 
them  said  to  me,  "We  had  900  on  the  list,  and  then  we  quit 
counting."  The  women  were  good  housekeepers,  and  the 
men  were  then,  and  still  are,  mainly  prosperous  farmers  — 
the  best  type  of  American  citizen  —  seldom  officeholders, 
but  usually  having  a  representative  on  the  board  of  county 
commissioners  or  in  the  legislature.  There  was  not  a  poet, 
a  philosopher,  nor  an  Abolitionist  among  them.  They  did 
not  believe  in  burning  the  barn  down  to  get  rid  of  the 
rats.  They  were  Union  men  and  believed  in  law  and 
order,  although  they  went,  as  did  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  to 
hear  Walter  Pennington  preach.  The  best  of  the  New 
England  Abolitionists  never  surpassed  Walter  Pennington 
in  denouncing  "the  divine  institution."  He  spared  not 
even  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  nor  the 
Father  of  his  Country  for  continuing  to  own  negroes  in  the 
teeth  of  their  efforts  to  provide  by  law  for  emancipation. 
The  Reverend  Walter  was  fond  of  commending  Thomas 
Worthington,  a  Virginian,  who  led  off  in  freeing  all  his  slaves 
(fifty  in  number)  and  provided  homes  for  them  in  the  North- 
west Territory.  Coles  also  did  the  same,  and  settled  in  the 
Illinois  country,  and  likewise  the  "poor  white  trash"  who 
"toted"  his  single  "nigger"  to  the  land  of  freedom. 

The  Davises,  who  remained  Democrats,  helped  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  in  all  his  political  contests  in  1854  and  1855,  and  in 
i860.  One  bright  morning  in  July,  1863,  I  served  breakfast 
to  one  of  the  Davises  of  mature  years,  with  George  Seacat 


48        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  David  Askren.  In  the  late  hours  of  the  night  they  had 
ridden  in  to  join  the  Home  Guards.  Later,  with  their 
squirrel  rifles,  I  saw  them,  outnumbered  seven  to  one,  march 
out  to  meet  the  Morgan  veterans  supported  by  artillery. 

Even  after  it  had  become  an  Abolitionist  war,  as  it  was 
called  after  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  poets  and 
philosophers  and  "the  friends"  did  not  go  in.  Wendell 
Phillips  was  taunted  for  staying  at  home.  But  it  has  always 
been  thus.  It  was  so  in  the  South.  Many  of  the  extrem- 
ists and  fire-eaters  did  not  fight.  It  was  the  man  who 
resisted  secession  the  longest  who  stayed  to  the  surrender. 
Coming  up  from  the  South,  I  have  several  times  stopped  at 
Waynesville,  North  Carolina,  where  Major  W.  W.  Spring- 
field,  late  C.  S.  A.,  resides.  Said  the  Major:  "At  Straw- 
berry Plains,  Tennessee,  where  I  was  born  and  raised,  I 
resisted  secession  to  the  last,  but  Mills  Shultz,  who  out- 
talked  and  out-voted  us,  stayed  at  home,  while  I  enlisted 
as  a  private  and  surrendered  as  a  major  at  Appomattox. 
And  would  you  believe  me,  when  I  went  to  vote  the  first 
time  after  the  war,  there  was  Mills  Shultz  to  challenge  my 
right  to  do  so  because  I  had  been  in  the  Rebel  army!" 

When  the  final  test  came,  and  the  extremists  and  most 
of  the  Abolitionists  stayed  at  home,  many  of  the  third 
generation  of  the  Davises  went  into  the  Union  army  as  vol- 
unteers—  some  as  officers,  some  as  mere  boys  in  the  ranks. 
Except  those  who  were  killed  or  badly  wounded,  they  stayed 
to  the  end.  Walter  Davis,  at  sixteen,  joined  the  Forty- 
ninth  Indiana  as  a  volunteer.  He  said:  "I  served  four 
years  without  a  wound,  but  they  almost  marched  me  to 
death  —  six  times  across  Kentucky,  then  clear  down  to 
Savannah,  up  through  the  Carclinas,  and  down  the  ave- 
nue in  the  Grand  Review."  Rodolphus,  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Fifty-ninth  Indiana,  was  close  to  my  husband  when  he, 
as  a  division  commander,  was  shot  in  front  of  Atlanta. 
The  next  morning  "Dolphus"  helped  carry  the  wounded 
cousin  from  camp  to  the  box  car,  and  as  the  train  was  held, 


THE  "UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD"     49 

went  back  with  the  detail  and  brought  out  McPherson's 
body  in  a  pine  box,  which  was  shoved  into  the  car  with  the 
wounded  men  as  the  train  pulled  out  for  Nashville.1 

From  the  start,  President  Taylor,  a  slaveholder,  a  Ken- 
tuckian  by  birth,  a  citizen  of  Louisiana,  had  encouraged  the 
settlers  to  organize.  In  December,  1849,  in  one  of  the 
ablest  messages  ever  submitted  to  Congress,  written  by 
Reverdy  Johnson,  his  attorney-general,  and  predicated  on 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  —  that  the  people  of  each 
State  or  territory  were  of  right  entitled  to  such  laws  as  they 
desired  for  their  own  local  government  —  the  soldier  presi- 
dent pressed  the  claims  of  California.  The  threats  of  the 
hotheads  to  secede  brought  counter  threats  that  the  first 
overt  act  would  be  met  with  the  armed  forces  of  the  United 
States,  led  by  the  "Old  Warrior  "  himself.  He  surprised  the 
slaveholder,  as  well  as  the  boy  whose  anti-slavery  views  had 
led  him  to  wish  in  1848  that  he  were  of  age  so  that  he  might 
vote  for  John  P.  Hale  of  New  Hampshire  and  George  W.  Julian 
of  Indiana.  Many  a  time  I  have  heard  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
discuss  these  two  men.  The  daughter  of  John  P.  Hale,  and 
her  husband,  William  E.  Chandler,  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
in  President  Arthur's  cabinet,  became  our  warmest  friends. 
It  was  a  friendship  that  did  not  abate  when  Walter  Q.  Gres- 
ham became  Secretary  of  State  in  a  Democratic  cabinet. 
Aid  and  comfort  that  the  Republican  Senator  Chandler 
offered  to  Democratic  Secretary  of  State  Gresham  could  not 
be  received  for  fear  of  offending  some  of  the  Democrats. 
Mrs.  Chandler  was  devoted,  to  use  a  Southern  word,  to 
Mr.  Gresham,  and  there  never  was  a  brighter  or  sweeter 
Yankee  woman. 

Too  much  ice  water  on  July  4,  1850,  ended  Zachary 
Taylor's  career,  and  then  Henry  Clay  put  through  the  last 
compromise  on  the  slavery  question,  and  the  Nashville 
convention  adjourned  sine  die. 

The  compromise  of  September  11,  1850,  of  which  Henry 

1  See  page  302. 


50       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Clay  was  the  author,  admitted  California  as  a  Free  State; 
organized  territorial  governments  in  Utah  and  New  Mexico, 
to  be  admitted  as  Free  or  Slave  States,  as  the  people  of  those 
territories  might  ultimately  determine;  abolished  the  slave 
trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  with  a  sweep  of  the 
pendulum  to  the  extreme  of  the  Federal  power,  ignoring 
almost  every  fundamental  principle  of  right  and  justice, 
rewrote  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  on  lines  that  would  have 
astounded  Washington  and  his  advisers. 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  as  amended  September  n,  1850, 
provided  for  additional  United  States  Commissioners,  one 
to  be  appointed  in  each  county,  if  necessary,  who  was  author- 
ized on  the  production  of  a  certificate  under  the  seal  of  a 
court  of  the  State  from  which  the  fugitive  had  fled,  giving  a 
description  of  the  alleged  fugitive,  to  issue  his  warrant  to 
the  United  States  marshal  for  the  apprehension  of  the  negro 
described  in  the  certificate.  The  marshal  might,  at  his 
discretion,  without  any  showing  to  the  court,  if  he  had  reason 
to  believe  there  would  be  resistance,  call  on  any  citizen  to 
aid  him  in  enforcing  the  writ.  On  the  apprehension  of  the 
fugitive,  the  only  question  to  be  tried  by  the  commissioner 
was  the  identity  of  the  fugitive,  as  set  forth  in  the  certificate 
—  and  this  too  without  a  jury.  "In  no  trial  or  hearing 
under  this  act  shall  the  testimony  of  such  alleged  fugitive 
be  admitted  in  evidence."  "No  writ  or  habeas  corpus 
should  issue  to  release  an  alleged  fugitive."  "The  com- 
missioner shall  receive  a  fee  of  $5  in  the  event  of  the  re- 
lease of  alleged  fugitives,  and  $10  in  the  event  he  remand 
him  to  the  custody  of  the  alleged  owner."  The  reason  for 
the  difference  in  the  compensation,  as  expressed  in  the  act, 
was  because  of  the  difference  of  the  labor  required  of  the 
commissioner.  In  the  event  the  fugitive  was  remanded  to 
the  custody  of  the  owner,  the  commissioner  should  give  him 
a  long  certificate,  reciting  all  of  the  proceedings,  whereas, 
if  the  fugitive  was  released,  there  was  a  simple  order  and 
certificate  to  that  effect.    Additional  penalties  were  imposed 


THE    "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD  51 

on  those  who  aided  the  fugitives  to  escape.  Municipalities 
and  counties,  where  there  were  rescues  of  fugitive  slaves, 
were  made  liable  to  the  owners  for  the  value  of  the  slaves, 
while  the  municipality  or  city  where  the  rescue  occurred 
was  given  the  right  to  recover  from  the  parties  making 
the  rescue. 

Samuel  J.  Wright,  always  forcible  and  keen,  "but  often 
unfair,"  as  Walter  Q.  Gresham  afterwards  described  him, — 
"Slick  Samuel,"  his  opponents  called  him, — took  up  the  cry, 
"It's  unconstitutional!"  Promptly  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Wisconsin  so  held,  and  it  was  several  years  before,  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  could  get  a  record  and 
pronounce  the  law  constitutional. 

However  it  might  be  in  the  other  States  of  the  Union, 
in  the  five  States  carved  out  of  the  Northwest  Territory  — 
viz.,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  (and 
eminent  lawyers  still  contend  that  in  the  last  named  States 
the  ordinance  of  July  13,  1787,  is  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land) — it  was  claimed  and  argued  with  force  that  Congress 
could  not,  under  the  fugitive  slave  section  of  the  National 
Constitution,  deprive  even  a  negro  of  his  natural,  inherent, 
and  inalienable  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  and  the 
means  of  their  preservation  or  of  due  process  of  law,  that  is, 
of  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  or  a  jury  trial  with  the  right  to 
testify,  because  in  the  ordinance  of  July  13,  1787,  for  the 
organization  of  the  Northwest  Territory  and  the  States  to 
be  organized  out  of  it,  among  the  guaranties  to  the  people 
thereof  and  their  descendants  were  the  natural  rights  of 
man  and  the  means  of  their  preservation,  or  "due  process  of 
law. ' '  These  and  the  other  personal  and  political  guaranties 
embedded  in  the  ordinance  were  among  the  considerations 
for  the  pro-slavery  clauses  of  the  National  Constitution. 
It  was  the  first  compromise  on  the  slavery  question.1 

While  most  of  the  Virginians  who  made  for  the  Northwest 

1  Speaking  of  the  deal  and  the  part  Massachusetts  took  in  putting  it  through,  Wendel 
Phillips  said:  "If  a  Yankee  saw  a  dollar  on  the  other  side  of  hell,  he  would  jump  for  it  at  the 
risk  of  falling  in." 


52        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

conceded  that  the  pro-slavery  people  got  the  best  of  the 
first  compromise,  they  said  Henry  Clay  out- traded  them 
in  the  second  —  that  is,  in  the  Missouri  Compromise — for 
all  of  the  territory  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  under  the 
treaty  with  Napoleon  whereby  it  was  acquired,  was  slave 
territory.  It  was  the  pride  of  the  Penningtons,  Rumleys, 
and  most  of  the  Davises,  that  their  anti-slavery  views  were 
not  of  New  England  origin  but  were  brought  with  them 
from  Virginia.  I  have  heard  Walter  Q.  Gresham  say, 
"Thank  God,  none  of  my  ancestors  prospered  or  grew  rich 
in  the  New  England  carrying  trade  —  swapping  beads  and 
rum  for  men  in  Africa,  and  then  selling  these  men  in  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina  at  a  good  price."  The  morals  under- 
lying much  of  New  England  commercialism  he  scorned. 

As  late  as  1844,  a  Clay  delegate  to  the  Baltimore  con- 
vention, a  Clay  elector,  and  on  the  stump  that  year  for  the 
"Mill  Boy  of  the  Slashes,"  Dennis  Pennington  was  always 
first  and  last  a  Union  man.  He  admired  Andrew  Jackson 
as  he  did  a  bulldog — his  courage  but  not  his  brains.  It 
was  Webster's  argument  that  justified  Jackson's  threat  to 
hang  Calhoun.  "Study  law,  my  boy,  and  the  history  of 
your  country,  and  be  prepared  to  meet  them  on  the  stump, 
but  always  stand  by  the  Union,"  was  the  old  man's  advice. 
Had  Dennis  Pennington  lived  in]'i86o,  he  would  undoubt- 
edly have  favored  another  compromise,  for  he  pointed  out 
what  Calhoun  said  about  that  of  1850:  "Another  such  and 
we  are  gone." 

Neither  did  Wendell  Phillips  deny  the  constitutionality 
of  the  new  law.  He  and  Theodore  Parker  met  it  with  open 
resistance  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  asking  the  conscience 
Whigs,  ' '  Where  is  your  free  constitution  ? ' '  Meantime  they 
had  whipped  New  England  into  a  frenzy  over  the  immor- 
ality of  the  Prigg  case  and  of  one  of  the  decisions  of  another 
eminent  New  England  jurist,  Chief  Justice  Shaw  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  so  discredited  her  greatest  man,  Daniel  Web- 
ster, that  that  impresses  still  on  the  man  of  letters.     They 


THE    "UNDERGROUND    RAILROAD"  53 

broke  Benjamin  R.  Curtis  as  a  judge  when  he  succeeded 
Justice  Story  on  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  United  States. 

"Goad  the  slaveholder  to  madness,"  said  the  Aboli- 
tionist lawyer.  "If  the  slaveholder  will  give  up  Section  4 
of  Article  4  of  the  Constitution,  we  will  have  him  up  against 
the  Sommerset  case,  and  with  it  as  a  premise  we  will  control 
the  public  opinion  of  Great  Britain,  and  consequently  her 
government,  against  him." 

Tracing  his  lineage  back  to  the  Mayflower,  inheriting 
a  competency,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  with  excellent  pros- 
pects for  a  valuable  private  practice  and  political  prefer- 
ment, both  of  which  he  gave  up  in  order,  as  he  said,  to 
represent  three  million  human  beings  "who  stood  mute 
within  our  civilization  and  our  laws,"  Wendell  Phillips 
demonstrated  he  was  the  best  informed  and  ablest  lawyer 
of  his  time.  But  a  lawyer  with  a  single  client  is  always  a 
dangerous  man  in  a  community.  If  consideration  for  the 
unfortunate  whites,  whose  destiny  for  the  time  being  at 
least  was  tied  up  with  the  bondsmen,  can  be  laid  aside  — 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  always  kept  them  in  mind1  —  then  the 
advocate  of  unconditional  and  immediate  abolition  must  be 
rated  the  clearest  sighted  and  boldest  statesman  America  ever 
produced.  The  distinction,  as  the  Frenchman  put  it,  is  the 
difference  between  "men  of  the  nation  and  men  of  the  bar." 

From  the  time  of  the  Prigg  decision,  Wendell  Phillips 
held  Massachusetts  as  a  legal  entity  out  of  the  Union. 
Jefferson  Davis  made  that  point  in  his  farewell  address  in 
1 86 1,  and  as  a  reason  why  the  Southern  brothers  should  be 
permitted  to  depart  in  peace.  He  said  that  in  1850  he  had 
opposed  the  coercion  Daniel  Webster  then  exerted  on  the 
people  of  Massachusetts.  And  so  well  did  Webster,  as 
the  head  of  the  Fillmore  administration,  enforce  the  law, 
that  Wendell  Phillips  after  a  time  advised  the  fugitives  they 
were  no  longer  safe  in  Massachusetts,  and  unless  they  were 
prepared  to  resist  by  taking  human  life,  they  should  flee 
to  Canada. 

iSee  Chapters  XVI  and  XIX,  especially  page  326. 


54       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 


J 


\J\ 


Webster  was  a  patriot  when  he  forced  South  Carolina  — 
with  the  fiery  Jackson  making  concessions  —  to  live  up  to  a 
tariff  law  that  bore  heavily,  but  an  apostate  and  Ichabod 
when  he  made  the  people  of  Massachusetts  —  the  State  that 
seconded  South  Carolina's  motion  for  a  pro-slavery  consti- 
tution—  obey  the  law  of  Congress  passed  in  pursuance  of 
that  constitution  and  warned  Massachusetts  what  might 
be  the  consequence  of  her  disobedience. 

The  student  had  learned  the  ''hang"  of  the  office  under 
the  big  elm  tree  with  the  reports  and  the  briefs,  when  Daniel 
Webster,  a  heartbroken  man,  on  October  29,  1852,  breathed 
his  last  at  Marshfield,  to  be  vindicated  even  by  Wendell 
Phillips,  as  well  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  Webster's  last  words 
were:  "A  few  Abolitionists  have  more  influence  than  I 
and  all  the  public  men  in  America."  Five  months  before 
Webster's  demise,  Henry  Clay  had  died,  at  the  National 
Hotel  in  Washington. 

Long  before  Walter  Q.  Gresham  formally  began  the  study 
of  the  law,  he  had  read  many  of  Webster's  speeches.  In 
the  log  schoolhouse  he  had  declaimed,  as  many  another 
schoolboy  has  done,  before  and  since,  that  prayer  of  Webster 
in  his  reply  to  Hayne:  "When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to 
behold  for  the  last  time  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see 
him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments  of  a 
once  glorious  union;  on  states  dissevered,  discordant,  bellig- 
erent, on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be, 
in  fraternal  blood."  History  will  rate  Webster  a  great 
statesman,  as  well  as  a  great  lawyer.1 

A  thorough  mastery  of  the  pro-slavery  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  of  the  legislation  and  de- 
cisions under  it,  and  of  the  slave  code  of  Kentucky,  as  a 
part  of  his  legal  education,  satisfied  Gresham  that  the  theory 
of  Wendell  Phillips  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  possibly 
potential  in  the  end,  but  harsh  and  cruel,  was  wrong.  Their 
first  premise  that  slavery  was  immoral  merely  confirmed 

iSee  page  139, 


THE 


"underground  railroad" 


55 


his  mother's  teaching  and  the  promptings  of  his  own  heart. 
But  their  second  premise  —  and  the  Springville  Resolutions 
anticipated  them  by  twenty  years  —  that  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  was  per  se  a  pro-slavery  instrument, 
did  not  support  their  conclusion  that  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  be  defied  and  the  Union  destroyed.  He  was  confirmed 
in  this  by  the  opinion  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  that  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Union  meant  in  time  the  extinction  of  slavery. 

It  was  in  those  formative  days  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
learned,  as  he  afterwards  often  remarked,  that  it  was  at 
the  Hartford  convention  of  1814  that  secession,  at  least  in  a 
practical  way,  was  first  suggested,  and  this  fact  he  always 
afterwards  kept  in  mind  when  considering  the  action  of  the 
men  who  went  into  the  rebellion. 

The  convictions  of  Henry  Clay,1  as  expounded  by  Daniel 
Webster,  he  grasped  as  correct,  namely,  that  if  the  Union 
could  be  held  together,  the  growth  and  development  of  the 
country  and  public  opinion  would,  in  time,  bring  about 
the  abolition  of  slavery  without  violence  and  bloodshed, 
and  with  compensation  to  the  slaveholders.  In  short, 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  never  was  an  Abolitionist.  Moreover, 
he  used  his  influence  with  the  young  men  about  Corydon 
to  abate  the  activities  in  the  Underground  Railroad.  He 
came  to  the  conclusion  then,  as  he  afterwards  maintained, 
that  a  State,  the  same  as  an  individual,  whether  an  anti-  or 
a  pro-slavery  man,  should  obey  the  Federal  power  in  the 
exercise  of  all  its  legitimate  functions.  His  pro-slavery 
friends,  his  Kentucky  friends,  and  the  lawyers  from  Bran- 
denburg down  the  river  to  Cloverport  and  back  in  the 
State  to  Hardinsburg  and  Elizabethtown,  never  doubted 
his  good  faith  when  he  told  them  that  he  was  glad  that 
Indiana  had  no  personal  liberty  laws  on  her  statute  books 
such  as  those  of  Massachusetts.  Because  these  laws  were 
unconstitutional  and  furnished  a  pretext  for  secession,  he 
was  against  them. 

1  See  page  139. 


i/U    U 


CHAPTER   III 
THE   KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL 


"SQUATTER       SOVEREIGNTY" CORRESPONDENCE       WITH 

SALMON    P.    CHASE THE    ELECTION    OF     1854 ATTEMPT    TO 

DEFEAT  WILLIAM  H.  ENGLISH,  DEMOCRATIC  MEMBER  OF 
CONGRESS WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM  ANTI-NEBRASKA  CANDI- 
DATE    FOR     PROSECUTING     ATTORNEY ASIATIC     CHOLERA 

"KNOW-NOTHING"    RIOTS    IN    LOUISVILLE BLOODY   MONDAY 

GRESHAM  ON  THE  STUMP HELPS  ORGANIZE  THE  REPUB- 
LICAN   PARTY. 

XYT ALTER  Q.  GRESHAM  was  reviewing  his  studies 
"  "  preparatory  to  admission  to  the  bar  when  the  country 
was  thrown  into  a  frenzy  by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. 
No  measure  was  ever  less  understood,  aroused  greater 
opposition,  or  was  more  far-reaching  in  its  effects.  To-day 
the  layman  and  thej  publicist  seem  to  be  equally  ignorant 
as  to  what  it  really  was  and  just  how  it  operated. 

January  23,  1854,  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  reported  his  third  amended  bill  to  organize 
the  territory  west  of  Missouri  and  Iowa  —  the  remaining 
portion  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase — into  two  territories, 
Kansas  and  Nebraska,  with  or  without  slavery,  as  the 
people  might  desire;  because,  as  the  bill  declared,  Section 
8  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  which  prohibited  slavery 
north  of  the  line  3 6°  30',  the  southern  boundary  line  of 
Kansas,  was  " inoperative"  in  that  it  was  superseded  by 
the  Compromise  of  1850,  which  had  refused  to  extend 
the  360  30'  line  to  the  coast;  the  purpose  being,  as  the 
bill  declared,  that  "Congress  shall  neither  legislate  slavery 
into  any  of  the  territories  or  States,  nor  out  of  the  same; 

56 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA     BILL  57 

but  the  people  shall  be  left  free  to  regulate  their  own  do- 
mestic concerns  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States." 

As  the  bill  finally  emerged  from  the  committee,  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  one  of  the  anti-slavery  leaders  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  an  Independent  Democrat,  as  he  styled 
himself,  denounced  it  as  a  gross  violation  of  a  sacred  pledge, 
and  in  an  address  previously  prepared  and  that  day  started 
broadcast  over  the  land,  called  on  the  anti-slavery  people 
to  defeat  the  purpose  "to  exclude  from  a  vast  unoccupied 
region  immigrants  from  the  Old  World  and  free  laborers 
from  our  own  States,  and  convert  it  into  a  dreary  region  of 
despotism,  inhabited  only  by  masters  and  slaves." 

The  law  student  at  once  wrote  Senator  Chase,  which 
started  a  correspondence  that  was  kept  up  for  years,  and 
perhaps  accounts  for  the  fact  that  in  i860  Gresham  was 
for  Chase  rather  than  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  nomination  for 
President. 

In  the  debate  that  followed,  in  the  Spring  of  1854,  on  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  Senators  Chase,  Seward,  and  Sum- 
ner, representing  the  anti-slavery  sentiment,  and  Senators 
Bell,  Huston,  and  Davis  the  pro-slavery  side,  the  moderates 
and  extremists  were  no  match  for  Senator  Douglas. 

From  the  accepted  doctrines  that  the  people  of  the 
States  were  accorded  the  right  to  determine  their  own 
domestic  concerns,  Senator  Douglas  argued  the  same  right 
should  be  accorded  the  people  of  a  territory,  and  they 
should  begin  to  exercise  that  right  as  soon  as  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  intrusted  them  with  a  territorial 
government. 

When,  later  on,  the  practical  operation  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill  was  what  neither  the  anti-slavery  nor  the  pro- 
slavery  people  expected,  sides  were  changed.  Among  the 
first  to  see  the  effect  it  would  have  — the  making  of  Kansas 
into  a  Free  State  —  and  to  give  his  approval  to  the  principle 
upon  which  it  was  constructed,  was  Walter  Q.  Gresham. 


58        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

By  1856  the  extreme  pro- slavery  Secessionists,  led  by 
Senator  Robert  L.  Toombs  of  Georgia,  perceived  what  had 
become  plain  to  the  young  lawyer  the  year  before,  that 
the  practical  workings  of  the  Kansas- Nebraska  Bill  would 
make  of  Kansas  a  Free  State.  It  was  for  this  reason  that 
W.  L.  Yancey  and  the  extremists  wanted  to  defeat  Doug- 
las's nomination,  and  especially  to  repudiate  as  a  party 
measure  the  doctrine  of  ''Squatter  Sovereignty." 

In  February,  1861,  after  the  pro-slavery  men  had  se- 
ceded because  Douglas  held  their  party  to  what  Mr.  Lincoln 
called  "Squatter  Sovereignty,"  a  Republican  Congress, 
Charles  Sumner  and  William  H.  Seward  sitting  mute,  copied 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  verbatim  in  bills  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  territories  of  Colorado,  Dakota,  and  Nevada. 

In  1883,  while  Mr.  Blaine  was  writing  his  "Twenty  Years 
in  Congress,"  I  heard  him  discuss  the  operation  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  with  Mr.  Gresham  in  our  library  in 
Washington.  If,  as  Mr.  Blaine  says  in  his  book,  and  as  he 
said  to  my  husband,  Charles  Sumner,  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
and  William  H.  Seward  owed  an  apology  to  the  memory  of 
Daniel  Webster  for  the  maledictions  they  heaped  upon  him 
for  his  seventh  of  March  speech,  which  was  mainly  in  sup- 
port of  the  proposition  of  the  Compromise  of  1850  to  make 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  territories  with  the  right  to  adopt 
or  reject  slavery,  then  it  must  be  admitted,  as  my  husband 
said  to  Mr.  Blaine,  that  much  of  the  criticism  in  the  year 
1854,  and  afterwards,  of  Senator  Douglas,  was  unjust,  and 
that  history  must,  as  it  will,  do  him  that  justice  which  Mr. 
Blaine  does  not  accord  him. 

Senator  Douglas  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
Springville  Resolutions1  and  the  effect  of  Congress  giving 
them  heed.  But  he  never  mentioned  them.  Disclaiming 
all  sympathy  with  the  bondsman,  was  the  lawyer's  way  of 
advancing  a  principle  of  government  that  made  for  the 
bondsman's  freedom  and  caused  Abraham  Lincoln  to  de- 
nounce him  as  the  best  Abolitionist  of  them  all.     It  was 

1  See  pages  21  and  22. 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  59 

inside  the  ropes  and  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  that  Douglas  fought. 

In  1854  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  centered  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  of  the  second  Indiana  congressional  dis- 
trict on  their  congressman,  William  H.  English  of  Lexington, 
Scott  County,  who  was  then  serving  his  second  term. 
When,  on  May  2,  the  bill  passed  the  House  with  many 
Democratic  votes  against  it,  but  with  "Bill"  English  and 
many  WThig  members  from  the  South  for  it,  an  organiza- 
tion at  home  was  started  to  defeat  Mr.  English's  re-elec- 
tion. In  this  movement  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  partic- 
ularly active.  On  August  30,  1854,  a  convention,  which 
was  called  "The  People's  Convention,"  assembled  in  New 
Albany  and  nominated  Thomas  C.  Slaughter,  the  senior 
member  of  the  firm  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham,  as  the  Anti- 
Nebraska  candidate  for  Congress. 

In  addition  to  helping  manage  the  Slaughter  campaign, 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  became  the  An ti- Nebraska  candidate 
for  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in 
the  district  composed  of  the  counties  of  Harrison,  Crawford, 
Orange,  and  Washington,  against  T.  S.  Ganiott.  Much  of 
the  time  Mr.  Slaughter  was  kept  out  of  the  contest  because 
of  his  ill  health  and  on  account  of  the  illness  and  death  of 
his  eldest  son.  Many  of  his  appointments  to  speak  were 
filled  by  his  young  partner  and  George  P.  R.  Wilson,  a  Ken- 
tuckian  who  had  come  at  an  early  date  to  Harrison  County 
and  married  a  daughter  of  Spier  Spencer,  who  fell  at  Tippe- 
canoe while  in  command  of  the  Harrison  County  troops 
at  that  battle.  Except  when  he  was  engaged  in  public 
affairs  Mr.  Wilson  lived  on  a  large  farm  in  the  western  part 
of  the  county.  He  had  then  been  a  member  of  the  Indiana 
legislature  for  ten  terms,  and  in  1845  nad  failed  as  a  Whig 
candidate  for  Congress  when  pitted  against  that  remarkable 
man,  Robert  Dale  Owen,  who  as  a  Democrat  in  the  midst 
of  the  war  advanced  some  of  the  most  important  arguments 
for  its  prosecution  to  a  finish.1 

1  See  page  200. 


60       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

The  masses  of  the  Democrats  at  first  looked  on  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill  as  a  violation  of  the  pledge  embodied 
in  the  Missouri  Compromise;  but  party  lines  were  strong, 
William  H.  English  was  a  good  campaigner,  and  the  people 
easily  led.  The  New  Albany  Ledger,  in  a  leading  editorial 
June  2,  1854,  denouncing  the  bill,  concluded  as  follows: 

' '  If  it  is  to  be  organized  it  ought  to  be  as  a  free  territory. 
It  is  a  violation  of  twice-plighted  faith  for  the  benefit  of  a 
presidential  candidate  and  ought  to  fail."  But  on  Septem- 
ber 16  the  same  paper  said:  "When  Mr.  Slaughter  says, 
'We  denounce  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  by 
the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  as  a  violation  of 
twice-pledged  faith,'  Mr.  Slaughter  says  that  for  which  he 
has  not  a  particle  of  reason  or  shadow  of  proof." 

In  this  contest  Judge  Slaughter,  who  was  a  man  of 
singular  purity  of  character,  as  well  as  of  ability,  came 
nearer  defeating  Mr.  English  than  ever  happened  in  the 
long  career  of  the  latter  gentleman.  Two  years  before, 
Mr.  English's  majority  was  2,500;  that  year  he  led  Mr. 
Slaughter  by  only  536.  Democrats  like  Thomas  A.  Hen- 
dricks, with  good  majorities  behind  them,  were  easily  de- 
feated that  year.  The  Anti-Nebraska  men  had  a  majority  of 
11,000  in  Indiana.  There  was  an  Anti-Nebraska  majority 
returned  to  the  next  Congress.  Ganiott  was  elected  prose- 
cuting attorney,  but  young  Gresham  carried  Harrison  Coun- 
ty by  a  vote  of  1,328  to  1,276,  the  only  candidate  who  did 
so  on  the  Anti-Nebraska  ticket  that  year.  Notwithstanding 
the  bitterness  of  the  political  contest,  the  acquaintance  then 
formed  by  young  Gresham  with  William  H.  English  ripened 
into  a  friendship  that  was  never  afterwards  broken.  Of  all 
the  Democrats  that  Indiana  produced,  Mr.  English  was, 
in  my  judgment,  the  ablest.  Less  gifted  than  many  others, 
he  surpassed  them  all  in  force  and  practical  sense. 

The  year  1855  was  marked  by  an  epidemic  of  cholera 
and  by  the  "Know-Nothing ' '  outbreak  against  the  foreigners 
and  the  Roman  Catholics  in  Louisville.     One  morning  early 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  61 

in  the  summer  I  went  to  market  with  my  mother,  a  negro 
carrying  our  basket.  As  we  passed  along  Market  Street, 
where  the  hacks  stood,  one  of  the  drivers  tumbled  from  his 
box.  The  report  at  once  spread  that  he  was  attacked  with 
Asiatic  cholera.  My  mother  hastened  home  and  we  were 
all  rushed  off  to  Cedar  Glade  at  Corydon.  Before  this, 
the  disease  had  made  its  appearance  at  many  points  on  the 
Ohio  River.  There  were  many  deaths  in  Louisville  and  at 
other  places,  and  it  was  not  until  late  in  the  fall  that  the 
ravages  of  the  plague  were  stopped. 

The  American  or  Know-Nothing  party  had  prevailed  in 
many  of  the  municipal  elections  throughout  Kentucky  in 
the  Spring  of  1855.  It  was  equally  successful  at  the  State 
and  congressional  elections  in  August  of  that  year.  It 
elected  Governor  Moorehead  and  a  majority  of  the  mem- 
bers of  Congress.  Being  a  foreigner  by  birth,  my  father's 
opposition  to  it  was  somewhat  •  akin  to  its  proscriptive 
nature.  He  went  from  Corydon  to  Louisville  to  vote 
against  it  at  the  August  election,  but  the  Know-Nothings 
carried  the  day,  which  has  gone  into  history  as  "Bloody 
Monday."  In  Louisville  there  were  riots  in  which  a  score 
of  men  were  killed  and  many  more  wounded. 

Fortunately  my  father  returned  to  Corydon  before  the 
news  of  the  riots  reached  us.  The  commotion  which  these 
events  created  in  a  household  such  as  ours  can  better  be 
imagined  than  told.  For  a  time  we  were  more  frightened 
at  the  word  "Know-Nothing"  than  at  the  mention  of  the 
Abolitionists.  The  impression  produced  on  my  father 
was  never  effaced.  The  riots  were  described  with  great 
detail,  and  we  were  told  how  George  D.  Prentice  and  Lovell 
H.  Rousseau  saved  the  Irish  from  a  general  massacre  and 
the  Catholic  Cathedral  from  destruction  by  fire.  My 
father  had  always  subscribed  for  the  Journal,  which  George 
D.  Prentice  had  established  years  before  as  the  Whig  organ 
but  primarily  in  the  interests  of  Henry  Clay.  When  he 
went  over  to  the  Democracy  because  of  the  Know-Nothing 


62       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

craze,  my  father  changed  newspapers — stopped  the  Journal 
and  took  the  Courier,  the  Democratic  organ.  But  after 
" Bloody  Monday,"  although  the  Courier  continued  to  be 
my  father's  paper,  the  Journal  was  invariably  delivered  at 
the  house  and  read  by  him,  though  there  was  much  in  the 
charge  of  the  Courier  that  it  was  Prentice's  intemperate 
editorials  before  and  on  the  day  of  the  election  that  had 
brought  about  "Bloody  Monday." 

Following  the  excitement  over  the  Know-Nothing  riots 
in  Louisville,  there  was  the  greatest  interest  in  Harrison 
County,  Indiana,  over  a  local  election,  which  brought  home 
not  only  to  every  voter  but  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  trouble.  In  correspondence  with  the 
young  lawyer,  Salmon  P.  Chase  repeated  the  advice  he  had 
urged  upon  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the  debates 
in  the  Senate  the  year  before,  that  they  manifest  in  every 
concrete  form  possible  their  opposition  to  the  plan,  as  he 
claimed,  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  to  make  Kansas  a 
Free  State. 

July  i,  1855,  the  county  commissioners  of  Harrison 
County  ordered  a  special  election  to  be  held  on  the  15th  of 
October  following,  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  offices  of  the 
county  clerk,  county  treasurer,  and  county  commissioner. 
Here  was  an  opportunity  for  the  young  lawyer.  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  did  not  want  the  office  of  county  clerk,  as  it  would 
take  him  out  of  the  practice  of  his  profession,  but  as  a  candi- 
date for  that  office  he  would  have  an  opportunity  to  organize 
and  advance  the  ideas  of  the  men  of  the  Anti-Nebraska 
sentiment.  He  accepted  the  nomination  on  the  Anti- 
Nebraska  ticket  for  clerk,  with  Hamilton  Tressewriter  for 
treasurer,  and  Reuben  W.  Reynolds  for  commissioner. 

The  Democrats  presented  as  their  candidate  for  county 
clerk,  William  H.  McMahon,  a  worthy  man.  They  nomi- 
nated Samuel  Douglass  for  treasurer  and  Jacob  Tense  for 
commissioner.  Mr.  McMahon  had  been  chief  deputy  clerk 
for   years,   and   as  such  had  managed  the  office  to  the 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  63 

satisfaction  of  everybody.  He  was  a  deservedly  popular 
man,  but  did  not  pretend  to  be  a  public  speaker.  So  the 
young  lawyer  challenged  the  Democrat  lawyers  to  a  joint  de- 
bate to  discuss  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  They  appointed 
Simeon  K.  Wolf,  an  ex- Whig  and  afterwards  a  Democratic 
member  of  Congress,  to  meet  him.  They  had  a  joint 
debate  in  the  public  square  in  Corydon,  and  then  met  in 
every  schoolhouse  in  the  county. 

George  P.  R.  Wilson  could  not  be  induced  to  join  the 
new  political  organization  (it  was  not  yet  the  Republican 
party  and  the  name  "Republican"  was  not  heard  that  year 
in  Harrison  County),  but  he  volunteered  to  take  the  stump 
for  his  young  friend  and  against  his  old  enemy,  the  Democ- 
racy. He  would  not  forgive  the  Abolitionists  for  their 
denunciation  of  his  idol,  Henry  Clay ;  but  he  approved  of  all 
the  denunciation  the  Abolitionists  could  heap  on  the  Demo- 
cratic organization.  Even  in  1856  Mr.  Wilson  was  still  so 
inoculated  with  the  virus  of  slavery  that  he  refused  to  join 
the  Republicans,  and  voted  for  Fillmore,  the  Know-Nothing 
candidate  for  President.     He  died  in  1857. 

Great  meetings  were  held  in  the  woods,  and  the  old  and 
the  young  man  addressed  them.  Mr.  Wilson  is  said  to  have 
surpassed  any  of  his  previous  efforts.  As  one  enthusiast 
said,  who  had  frequently  heard  Mr.  Clay  speak,  he  equaled 
Mr.  Clay  when  the  latter  was  at  his  best.  The  aid  Mr. 
Wilson  thus  rendered  (and  it  was  the  only  aid  he  received 
on  the  stump  in  that  contest)  the  young  man  never  forgot. 
Forty  years  later,  out  of  a  list  of  eligibles,  he  induced  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  to  advance  one  of  George  P.  R.  Wilson's 
sons,  a  regular  army  officer  in  every  way  qualified,  when 
General  Scofield,  then  in  command  of  the  army,  urged  the 
promotion  of  another  officer. 

In  his  address,  after  reviewing  all  the  historical  and 
legal  objections  to  the  system  of  African  slavery  that  had 
come  to  him  from  his  Virginia  and  Kentucky  ancestors,  the 
young  man  claimed  that  the  discussion  had  been  opened 


64       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  on  the  theory  that  it  had  been 
necessary  by  the  Compromise  of  1850  to  repeal  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  that  hence  he  was  free  to  discuss  and 
criticize  those  provisions  of  the  Compromise  of  1850,  namely, 
those  sections  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  which  bore  so 
harshly  on  the  alleged  fugitive  and  had  no  regard  for  the 
sensibilities  of  those  who  thought  slavery  immoral  and 
wrong.  He  would  accord  to  the  master  all  his  constitutional 
rights.  State  laws  that  interposed  obstacles  to  the  master's 
recovering  his  runaway  slave  were  unconstitutional  and 
wrong  and  should  be  repealed,  but  the  fugitive  slave  provi- 
sion of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  did  not  con- 
template that  Congress  should  offer  a  cheap  bribe  to  a  judi- 
cial officer  of  the  United  States,  either  to  do  or  fail  to  do  his 
duty,  five  dollars  to  a  United  States  commissioner  when  he 
set  the  black  free  but  ten  dollars  when  he  certified  him 
into  slavery.  Neither  did  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
expect  that  the  United  States  marshal  would  make  every 
man,  regardless  of  his  feelings,  a  "nigger  catcher." 

' '  If  the  negro  was  the  same  kind  of  property  as  a  horse, 
why  was  there  not  in  the  Federal  Constitution  some  provi- 
sion for  the  reclamation  of  runaway  horses?"  he  asked. 
The  constitutional  provision  and  the  law  of  Congress  to 
enforce  that  "personal  service"  conclusively  demonstrated 
there  could  be  "no  such  thing  as  property  in  man." 

He  further  argued  that  while  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill 
had  not  been  passed  in  good  faith,  now  that  it  operated  con- 
trary to  the  expectations  of  its  author  and  his  cohorts,  it 
was  not  being  and  would  not  be  enforced  in  good  faith  by 
the  National  administration,  dominated  as  it  was  by  the 
slave  power.  He  stated  that  only  the  preceding  March 
President  Pierce  had  removed  Governor  Reeder,  the  first 
governor  of  Kansas  and  the  man  he  (Pierce)  had  appointed 
under  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  because  Reeder  had  set 
aside  the  first  election  in  Kansas  for  the  reason  that  many 
of  the  actual  settlers  of  Kansas,  anti-slavery  men,  had  been 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  65 

driven  from  the  polls  before  they  could  vote,  by  border 
ruffians  from  Missouri,  who  stuffed  the  ballot  boxes  and 
then  returned  home.  Mr.  Gresham  said:  "I  opposed  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  but  now  that  I  see  how  it  operates, 
I  am  for  it.  .  .  The  only  way,  my  good  honest  Democratic 
friends  of  warm  and  generous  anti-slavery  sentiments,  to 
free  the  Democratic  organization  from  the  control  of  the 
slave  power,  is  to  vote  it  out  of  office." 

In  addition  to  the  challenge  to  the  Democratic  lawyers, 
an  offer  was  kept  up  to  meet  all  comers  in  joint  debate. 
John  Mathes,  an  auctioneer  and  a  local  celebrity,  who  had 
been  a  member  of  the  legislature  and  began  all  his  speeches 
with  the  statement,  "I  have  voted  for  every  Democratic 
candidate  for  President  from  Andy  Jackson  down,"  named 
Lowden's  schcolhouse  in  Spencer  Township  as  the  place 
where  he  would  like  "to  trim  the  young  sapling."  Of  that 
Lowden  schoolhouse  debate  Walter  Q.  Gresham  never  heard 
the  last.  In  his  native  township,  Franklin,  and  in  Spencer 
Township,  there  were  many  Germans,  but,  contrary  to  the 
usual  rule,  these  Germans  were  pro-slavery  in  their  views. 
Taking  these  views  as  a  text,  the  Germans  were  severely 
arraigned  for  fleeing  from  absolutism  and  persecution  in 
their  native  land,  only  to  side  with  it  or  the  slave  power  in 
this.  He  jarred  a  few  of  them  from  their  prejudices,  but  not 
many.  Invective  and  denunciation  sometimes  shames  a 
man  into  abandoning  a  position  he  cannot  be  reasoned  out 
of.  It  was  a  weapon  which  Gresham  knew  how  to  use 
and  did  use  in  private  as  well  as  in  public.  Growing  out  of 
the  fierceness  of  this  debate,  the  story  was  fabricated  and 
embodied  in  an  affidavit  and  spread  broadcast  that  the 
young  man  had  said:  ''It  was  not  necessary  that  the 
American  or  Know- Nothing  party  should  ask  me  to  join 
their  ranks,  as  I  have  an  American  heart.  I  grew  up  in  the 
town  of  Lanesville,  where  it  was  almost  impossible  for  the 
Americans  to  get  to  the  polls  because  of  the  presence  of 
dirty,  long-eared  Dutch.  They  are  paupers  and  criminals. 
5 


66       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

The  penitentiaries,  jails,  and  poorhouses  of  the  old  country 
were  emptied,  and  that  is  how  they  came  here." 

Although  he  denied  having  at  any  time  uttered  such 
sentiments,  the  fact  that  he  did  not  deny  that  he  had  joined 
a  Know-Nothing  lodge  before  he  was  a  voter  was  cited  as 
evidence  that  he  had  used  these  identical  words.  Debarred 
from  the  Whig  party  because  of  its  pro-slavery  tendencies, 
v'  he  said,  he  joined  the  Know-Nothings,  but  as  soon  as  he 
learned  that  party's  narrowness  and  proscriptive  nature,  he 
at  once  abandoned  it.  Unlike  many  men  who  were  after- 
wards prominent,  he  never  denied  that  he  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  that  organization. 

When  the  votes  were  counted,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was 
^  \  defeated  by  a  vote  of  1,447  to  1,340.  But  he  received  more 
votes  than  any  of  his  associates.  Almost  everywhere  else, 
except  in  Ohio,  where  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  elected  governor 
by  a  fusion,  there  was  a  lessening  of  the  vote  in  opposition 
to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  The  increase  in  the  number 
of  votes  cast  over  the  year  before,  when  the  excitement  was 
great  and  a  State  ticket  and  a  congressman  were  to  be 
elected,  shows  the  interest  that,  without  the  aid  of  a  news- 
paper, had  been  aroused  in  the  public  mind.  It  also  satis- 
fied Mr.  Gresham,  as  he  afterwards  repeatedly  said,  as  to 
the  response  the  people  of  his  native  county,  although 
largely  settlers  or  descendants  of  settlers  from  Slave  States, 
would  make  when  they  were  finally  satisfied  of  the  decep- 
tion, as  he  claimed,  that  was  being  practiced  on  them.  It 
also  convinced  him  of  the  correctness  of  the  proposition  that 
the  people  could  be  trusted  to  rule  themselves,  and  that  on 
all  domestic  and  local  questions  they  and  their  local  tribunals 
should  be  followed  by  the  National  courts.  It  was  a  prin- 
ciple he  afterwards  strictly  adhered  to  when  on  the  Federal 
bench. 

My  father  scrutinized  closely  all  the  young  men  who 
paid  attention  to  his  daughters.  He  disliked  the  anti- 
slavery  views  of  the  young  man  who  was   attentive  to 


vj 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  67 

me.  As  did  all  men  of  foreign  birth,  he  particularly  disliked 
the  American  or  Know-Nothing  party.  With  him  it  was 
"Once  a  Know-Nothing,  always  a  Know-Nothing."  Before 
the  subject  of  marriage  was  mentioned,  my  father  told  me 
he  did  not  like  the  political  principles  of  my  youthful 
admirer;  he  rated  him  both  an  Abolitionist  and  a  Know- 
Nothing,  and  he  said  that  while  there  was  no  possible  objec- 
tion to  him  as  a  man  of  character,  he  could  not  encourage 
his  suit.  Meanwhile  my  mother  had  died,  but  in  my  grand- 
mother my  husband-to-be  had  a  warm  advocate  and  admirer. 

The  school  years  of  1855-56  and  1856-57,  I  was  in 
school  in  Corydon,  Louisville,  and  at  the  boarding  school 
at  Bardstown,  Kentucky.  All  the  girls  at  Bardstown  were 
from  Southern  families,  and  my  sisters  and  I  were  regarded 
as  such.  They  considered  it  "awful"  that  I  had  an  Aboli- 
tionist for  a  sweetheart.  One  day  Mrs.  Crosby,  the  wife 
of  the  principal  of  the  school,  sent  for  me  and  gave  me  a 
small  package  she  had  just  received  for  me  through  the 
mail.  It  was  opened  in  her  presence.  It  satisfied  her  when 
I  said,  "How  glad  I  am  to  get  Cousin  Walter's  picture." 

Lucy  Brown,  of  Georgetown,  Kentucky,  was  a  special 
friend  of  my  sister  Lyde.  Frequently  on  Fridays  Lyde 
would  go  home  with  Lucy  to  stay  over  Sunday.  Lucy's 
brother  George  often  brought  them  back  to  school.  Sue 
Simmons,  one  of  my  special  friends,  lived  a  few  miles  from 
Bardstown.  I  often  went  home  with  her  for  Saturday  and 
Sunday.  There  was  a  large  family  of  the  Simmons ;  among 
them  were  two  brothers,  George  and  Reese  Simmons. 
Later  on  I  will  tell  you  how  I  met  George  Simmons  and 
George  Brown  as  Confederate  officers  commanding  the 
advance  guard  of  the  Morgan  raids  through  Indiana  and 
Ohio.1  The  Simmons  family  had  a  large  farm  and  many 
slaves.  One  of  our  amusements  there  was  to  get  one  of  the 
old  darkies  to  start  his  fiddle  and  see  the  little  pickaninnies 
come  out  of  the  cabins  in  swarms  and  dance. 

One  of  my  intimates  and  a  part  of  the  time  my  room- 

1  See  page  236. 


68        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

mate  was  a  bright,  charming  girl  named  Carrie  Taylor. 
Her  mother,  a  widow,  was  a  wealthy  woman  living  just 
south  of  Louisville.  We  frequently  visited  each  other. 
On  one  of  my  visits  to  the  Taylors,  I  met  Zeb  Harney,  the 
young  man  Carrie  subsequently  married.  His  father,  Major 
Harney,  was  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Louisville 
Democrat.  Through  my  friendship  for  the  Taylors  and 
the  Harneys,  I  induced  my  father  to  subscribe  for  the 
Louisville  Democrat.  Afterwards  the  war  wrought  havoc 
with  the  Taylor  estate  and  the  Democrat. 

The  distinction  of  that  time  between  the  simple  anti- 
slavery  man,  the  Republican-to-be,  and  the  Abolitionist, 
was  not  beyond  the  understanding  of  a  young  woman  who 
at  least  wanted  to  see  the  difference,  if  there  was  one.  Be- 
sides, in  a  household  that  was  pro-slavery,  with  sisters  both 
older  and  younger  who  were  given  to  criticizing  and  ridi- 
culing in  the  privacy  of  the  home  every  young  man  who 
showed  any  one  of  us  special  attention,  I  was  forced  to  learn 
the  distinction  between  a  Republican  and  an  Abolitionist. 
But  this  vast  difference  the  pro-slavery  people  of  the  South 
did  not  understand ;  and  the  anti -slavery  people  of  the  North 
never  seemed  fully  to  realize  it.  The  Abolitionists  were  care- 
ful to  keep  up  the  delusion  in  the  Southern  mind.  They 
purposely  compromised  every  Northern  leader  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Southern  people.  Southern  girls  could  not  under- 
stand that  a  Republican  or  a  simple  anti-slavery  man  was 
not  an  Abolitionist.  With  them  there  were  only  two 
classes — pro-slavery  men  and  Abolitionists.  The  horror 
the  Abolitionists  excited  in  the  minds  of  Southern  women 
has  never  been  appreciated  by  the  Northern  people,  especi- 
ally by  the  Northern  historians. 

The  first  platform  of  the  Republican  party  was  based 
on  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  maintenance  of 
which  it  declared  was  necessary  to  preserve  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  In  the  light  of  these  principles 
the  Constitution  should  be  interpreted.     It  declared  that 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  69 

all  the  territory  of  the  United  States  should  be  free,  and 
demanded  the  admission  of  Kansas  at  once  as  a  Free  State. 
But  it  disclaimed  any  purpose  to  interfere  with  the  domestic 
institutions  of  any  of  the  States.  By  bringing  Kansas  and 
other  Free  States  into  the  Union,  the  Republicans  —  at  least 
those  Republicans  with  whom  I  was  closely  associated  — 
believed  slavery  would  be  so  restricted  that  public  senti- 
ment would,  without  violence  or  bloodshed,  bring  about  in 
time  abolition,  but  with  compensation  to  the  slave  owner. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Abolitionists'  platform  was  "Imme- 
diate and  unconditional  abolition."  They  claimed  that 
fairness  and  good  faith  precluded  the  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution  in  the  light  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, for  the  fathers  who  drew  the  Constitution  intended 
it  should  be  a  pro- slavery  instrument.  But  because  it  was 
immoral  they  would  not  obey  it. 

Prior  to  1856  there  was  no  political  organization  in 
southern  Indiana  under  the  name  Republican.  The  Repub- 
lican party  was  organized  as  a  National  party  at  a  confer- 
ence held  at  Pittsburgh,  February  22,  1856.  Slaughter  and 
Gresham  aided  in  sending  a  representative  to  this  confer- 
ence, and  Mr.  Slaughter  was  made  one  of  the  delegates 
from  the  second  Indiana  congressional  district  to  the  first 
National  Republican  Convention  that  met  at  Philadelphia, 
pursuant  to  the  Pittsburgh  call,  and  nominated  Fremont 
and  Dayton.  The  junior  member  of  the  firm  went  on  the 
stump  that  year  for  "the  Pathfinder,"  as  Fremont  was 
called. 

An  incident  that  happened  during  this  campaign  marked 
the  first  meeting  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham  and  Oliver  P.  Mor- 
ton, afterwards  Indiana's  "War  Governor,"  and  explains 
why  Mr.  Gresham  never  deferred  to  Mr.  Morton  as  did 
many  men,  although  he  rated  Mr.  Morton's  intellect  as 
the  strongest  that  had  appeared  in  the  Senate  since  Mr. 
Webster's  time.  Up  to  1854  Oliver  P.  Morton  was  a  Demo- 
crat, but  in  1856  he  and  Conrad  Baker  were  the  Republican 


vi/ 


? 


70       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

candidates  for  governor  and  lieutenant-governor  of  Indiana 
against  Ashbel  P.  Willard  and  David  Turpie,  the  Demo- 
cratic candidates. 

When  Mr.  Morton  came  to  southern  Indiana  campaign- 
ing, a  large  crowd  assembled  in  a  grove  near  Corydon  early 
in  the  afternoon  to  hear  him  speak.  While  Godlove  S.  Orth 
was  making  his  address,  according  to  the  program,  and 
before  it  was  Mr.  Morton's  turn  to  speak,  Mr.  Willard 
appeared  in  front  of  the  stand,  interrupted  Mr.  Orth,  and 
said  he  was  there  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  public 
questions  of  the  day  with  Mr.  Morton,  and  desired  to  know 
if  he  could  be  accommodated.  Mr.  Morton  stated  that  he 
and  Mr.  Willard  had  been  unable  to  make  arrangements  for 
a  meeting,  and  that  he  could  not  then  enter  into  a  joint 
discussion  with  Mr.  Willard,  as  other  gentlemen  had  been 
advertised  to  speak  with  him.  Mr.  Willard  then  turned 
to  the  crowd  and  said  that  all  who  wished  to  hear  him 
speak  should  go  to  the  court  house.  More  than  half  of 
those  present  followed  him.  Mr.  Gresham  was  on  the  plat- 
form at  the  time,  and  immediately  on  the  conclusion  of  the 
meeting  told  Mr.  Morton  that  under  no  conditions  and  on 
no  pretext  could  he  afford  to  avoid  meeting  Willard,  that 
rather  than  that  he  should  retire  from  the  stump,  and  that 
in  southern  Indiana  he  should  be  as  aggressive  in  opposition 
to  slavery  as  he  was  among  the  Quakers  of  Wayne  County. 
Morton  acquiesced,  met  Willard  at  Leavenworth  the  next 
day,  and  followed  up  that  meeting  with  joint  discussions 
at  other  points.  With  Conrad  Baker  the  young  lawyer 
canvassed  the  district,  and  the  friendship  then  formed  was 
never  broken.     But  it  was  different  with  Oliver  P.  Morton. 

In  the  Cincinnati  Convention  of  1856,  by  reason  of  the 
two-thirds  rule,  Douglas  was  defeated  for  the  nomination,  but 
with  a  majority  of  the  convention  behind  him,  he  first  wrote 
the  platform  in  which  he  pledged  his  party  and  its  candi- 
date to  the  principles  of  his  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  and  non- 
intervention by  Congress  with  slavery  in  State  and  territory. 


THE    KANSAS-NEBRASKA    BILL  71 

Then  James  Buchanan,  who  had  been,  during  all  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  trouble  up  to  that  time,  the  American 
minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  was  made  the  Demo- 
cratic candidate  for  the  Presidency.  He  was  acceptable  to 
the  Douglas  Democrat  and  the  extreme  pro-slavery  Demo- 
crat alike,  because  he  had  no  record,  and  although  John  C. 
Breckenridge  of  Kentucky  was  named  for  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency, George  D.  Prentice  and  his  Journal  delivered  Ken- 
tucky's electoral  vote  to  Fillmore  and  Donelson,  the  Know- 
Nothing  candidates. 

The  pledges  that  Senator  Douglas  made  in  his  speeches 
throughout  the  country  that  his  party  and  its  candidates 
would  honestly  and  in  good  faith  stand  by  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,  that  is,  that  they  would  admit  Kansas  as  a 
Free  or  Slave  State  as  the  people  of  Kansas  might  determine, 
held  in  line  enough  Democrats  of  free-soil  tendencies  to  elect 
Buchanan.  Willard  was  elected  governor  of  Indiana  by 
6,000  majority.  William  H.  English,  who  pledged  him- 
self to  the  principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  was  re- 
elected to  Congress  by  a  majority  of  2,650  over  his  oppo- 
nent, John  C.  Wilson,  of  New  Albany.  Many  men  that 
year,  both  North  and  South,  masqueraded  behind  the  Amer- 
ican or  Know-Nothing  party,  which  presented  Millard  Fill- 
more, of  New  York,  and  Andrew  J.  Donelson,  of  Tennessee. 
The  popular  vote  was  for  Fillmore,  974,536;  for  Fremont, 
1,341,264;  for  Buchanan,  1,838,169.  In  Kentucky,  Fre- 
mont received  but  386  votes. 

Four  years  later,  when  Douglas  again  wrote  the  platform, 
the  Yancey  crowd,  in  the  meanwhile  permeated  with  Pren- 
tice's ideas  against  the  squatters,  bolted. 


CHAPTER   IV 
MARRIAGE  — CAMPAIGN   OF    1858 


MARRIAGE  AND  WEDDING  TRIP  —  NEWSPAPERS  —  BUCHAN- 
AN REPUDIATES  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL  —  ATTEMPTS  TO 
ADMIT  KANSAS  AS  A  SLAVE  STATE  —  DOUGLAS  DENOUNCES 
AND   DEFEATS    BUCHANAN  —  KANSAS    REJECTS    ENGLISH    BILL. 

Tj^EBRUARY  n,  1858,  we  were  married.  The  practice  of 
*  law,  and  the  Brandenburg  affair,  one  of  its  incidents, 
the  campaign  of  1858,  and  the  Lincoln-Douglas  Debate, 
which  all  dovetailed  together,  were  of  absorbing  interest 
that  year  to  Walter  Q.  Gresham. 

Our  wedding  trip  was  by  stage  to  Louisville,  and  thence 
by  boat  to  Leavenworth,  Crawford  County,  to  attend  court. 
On  our  return  to  Cory  don  we  boarded  with,  or  rather  were 
the  guests  of,  Colonel  Posey,  a  venerable  gentleman,  digni- 
fied and  courtly,  a  Virginian  by  birth  and  a  son  of  one  of 
the  territorial  governors  of  Indiana.  He  was  a  client  of  the 
firm  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham,  and  a  great  friend  of  my 
husband. 

In  a  few  months  we  left  Colonel  Posey's  and  went  to  live 
in  a  house  on  one  of  the  hills  at  the  edge  of  the  town.  Here 
our  first-born  arrived.  Many  were  the  good  suppers  we 
had  there  with  Dr.  Mitchell  Jones  as  the  chief  guest.  Fish- 
ing was  a  great  pastime  for  my  husband  and  for  Doctor 
Jones.  There  were  then  bass  in  abundance  in  Indian  Creek 
at  the  edge  of  Cory  don,  and  in  Blue  River,  a  larger  stream 
farther  west  which  was  the  dividing  line  between  Harrison 
and  Crawford  counties.  In  April,  1859,  we  purchased  a 
house  within  a  city  block  of  the  Constitutional  Elm.  The 
site  was  most  desirable,  and  with  some  remodeling  we  had 
what  I  thought  was  the  most  attractive  two-story  cottage 

72 


MARRIAGE  —  CAMPAIGN    OF    1858  73 

of  the  town.     In  those  days  every  one  raised  his  own  vege- 
tables.    We  had  a  fine  garden. 

At  this  time  the  office  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham  was  on 
the  second  floor  of  a  small  building  that  stood  in  the  public 
square  near  the  court  house.  It  had  but  one  room  upstairs, 
with  windows  on  three  sides  and  a  door  on  the  fourth,  which 
was  reached  by  a  flight  of  stairs  from  the  outside.  My 
husband  was  full  of  jokes,  good  spirits,  and  good  humor, 
and  there  was  not  too  much  shop  talk  at  the  home.  At 
night  when  it  was  necessary  to  work  on  a  case,  it  was  done 
at  the  office,  which  was  not  far  away. 

There  were  a  good  many  trials  before  justices  of  the 
peace  in  the  outlying  townships  in  Harrison  County.  While 
I  never  was  in  court  nor  present  at  the  trial  of  any  of 
these  cases,  I  sometimes  rode  with  my  husband;  but  instead 
of  attending  the  trials,  would  visit,  when  in  the  western 
part  of  the  county,  some  of  the  Davises,  relatives  of  his 
mother.  On  these  occasions  my  husband  often  took  along 
his  rifle,  and  while  he  never  professed  to  be  a  crack  shot, 
he  could  easily  bring  down  a  gray  squirrel  from  the  top  of 
the  tallest  poplar  tree,  often  putting  the  bullet  through 
its  head. 

When  it  came  to  newspapers  we  had  Horace  Greeley's 
anti-slavery  New  York  Tribune,  the  Louisville  Journal,  ed- 
ited by  George  D.  Prentice,  and  the  Louisville  Democrat, 
edited  by  my  friends,  the  Harney s. 

My  husband  and  my  father  both  knew  George  D.  Pren- 
tice personally,  and  frequently  discussed  his  future  and  that 
of  his  paper.  Prentice,  as  we  have  suggested  and  shall  see, 
was  the  most  influential  political  writer  of  his  time.1  Of 
him  Henry  Watterson  said:  "He  not  only  did  the  writing 
but  also  the  fighting  for  his  party ;  he  was  intellectually  the 
match  for  any  man;  he  was  physically  and  mentally  afraid 
of  no  man."  But  Mr.  Prentice  was  wanting  in  that  sound 
judgment  that  is  the  gift  of  some  less  favored  mortals. 
Conservative  at  first  as  a  follower  of  Henry  Clay,   after 

1  See  page  97. 


74       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Mr.  Clay's  death  he  drifted  to  the  support  or  leadership  of 
the  extreme  pro-slavery  Secessionist  propaganda.1 

The  Louisville  Democrat,  my  paper,  was  pro-slavery. 
It  was  edited  with  ability,  discernment,  and  sound  judg- 
ment, but  not  with  the  brilliancy  that  Prentice  displayed 
in  the  Journal.  Prentice,  in  advocating  the  claims  of  the 
slaveholder,  went  beyond  my  father's  paper,  the  Courier. 
He  attacked  Douglas  and  ''Squatter  Sovereignty"  with  all 
his  logic  and  sarcasm.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  he  said, 
was  anarchy  pure  and  simple,  in  that  it  substituted  the  rule 
of  the  mob,  that  of  the  first  few  squatters  in  a  territory,  for 
the  judgment  of  the  legislators  of  the  whole  people.  Major 
Harney  warned  his  contemporaries  and  his  readers  that 
Prentice  was  not  a  Democrat,  and  should  not  be 'permitted 
to  undermine  the  Democratic  faith  with  the  old  Federal 
and  Whig  principles  about  the  supreme  power  of  Congress 
over  slavery  in  the  territories,  for  if  that  principle  was 
adopted  the  first  Congress  that  was  in  control  of  the  anti- 
slavery  people  would  at  once  exclude  the  slaveholder  from 
the  territory.  Of  course  the  Harneys  and  their  paper  were 
partisans  of  Senator  Douglas. 

My  father  never  failed  to  let  us  know  what  extreme 
views  on  secession  were  foreshadowed  in  his  Louisville 
Courier  and  among  the  business  men  of  Louisville.  He  did 
not  quit  active  business  in  Louisville  until  the  Fall  of  1862. 
With  all  an  Irishman's  wit  and  deftness,  he  was  fond  of 
discussing  with  his  "Abolitionist  son-in-law"  the  current 
politics  of  the  day.  Every  question  hinged  on  secession. 
My  father  believed  in  secession,  and  he  believed  and  said,  as 
did  most  Secessionists,  that  the  anti-slavery  people,  "the 
Abolitionists,"  would  not  fight.  It  was  only  when  he  talked 
thus  that  he  annoyed  my  husband,  who  was  a  man  who 
never  made  threats.  He  answered  my  father  in  a  letter 
which  I  will  quote  later  on,  written  during  "the  advance  on 
Corinth. ' '  Always  clear  in  his  ideas,  tolerant  of  the  opinions 
of  his  fellows,  and  anxious  to  get  the  standpoints  and  study 

1  See  page  97  • 


MARRIAGE  —  CAMPAIGN    OF    1858  75 

the  workings  of  the  minds  of  others,  my  husband  encour- 
aged my  father  and  all  guests  to  express  their  views.  It 
was  thus  I  heard  every  phase  of  the  slavery  and  secession 
question  discussed.     It  was  a  part  of  our  life. 

My  husband's  friend,  Judge  W.  T.  Otto,  was  the  Repub- 
lican candidate  for  attorney-general  in  1858  against  Joseph 
E.  MacDonald,  the  Democratic  candidate.  Partisan  lines 
had  been  drawn,  and  George  A.  Bicknell  had  defeated  Judge 
Otto  for  re-election  to  the  bench.  In  later  years  I  knew 
Joseph  E.  MacDonald  well.  The  personal  interest  was 
heightened  by  the  controversy  over  the  slavery  question. 

' '  It  will  be  easy  to  make  a  campaign  against  the  Democ- 
racy of  this  year,"  said  Walter  Q.  Gresham.  "If  Kansas  is 
allowed  to  vote  herself  into  the  Union  as  a  Free  State,  as  she 
undoubtedly  will,  the  slave-ocracy  will  lose  its  control  of  the 
National  government ;  if  they  break  faith  with  the  principles 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill — the  Douglas  platform — and 
keep  Kansas  out  of  the  Union  by  denying  her  a  fair  election, 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  until  the  control  of  the  govern- 
ment will  pass  into  the  hands  of  men  of  reasonable  and 
conservative  views  on  the  slavery  question."  l 

One  evening  Samuel  J.  Wright  came  to  call.  He  was  no 
longer  auditor  of  Harrison  County,  but  proprietor  of  one 
of  the  two  flourishing  mills  of  the  town  and  a  general  all- 
round  business  man.  He  was  greatly  excited.  His  first 
words  were,  "Bill  English  is  goin'  to  flop."  Always  alert, 
"Slick  Sammy"  had  with  him  a  newspaper  containing 
an  elaborate  speech  by  William  H.  English,  who  as  the 
member  of  Congress  from  our  district  had  been  one  of 
Senator  Douglas's  friends  to  block  President  Buchanan's 
efforts  to  admit  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 

In  this  speech  Mr.  English  set  forth  the  advantages  of 
the  representative  theory  of  government,  and  the  disad- 
vantages and  dangers  of  the  referendum.     The  latter  was 

!At  the  meeting  of  Congress,  1859,  the  pro-slavery  senators  removed  Senator  Douglas 
from  the  chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Territories. 


76       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

not  in  accordance  with  the  Republican  theory  of  govern- 
ment. While  he  would  not  deny  that  the  Free  Soilers  in 
Kansas  were  in  a  majority  —  two  to  one  —  over  their  oppon- 
ents, the  voice  of  the  people,  he  said,  was  not  the  voice  of 
God,  and  the  representatives  of  the  entire  people  knew  what 
was  better  for  the  nation  than  a  few  settlers  in  a  territory. 

Finally,  on  April  3,  Mr.  English  proposed  what  was 
called  the  English  bill.  It  provided  that  the  people  of 
Kansas  could  vote  on  August  3  on  the  proposition  as  to 
whether  they  would  come  into  the  Union  under  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution — but  they  were  without  power  to  change 
its  slave  provision  to  a  free  one ;  in  other  words,  they  could 
only  come  into  the  Union  by  adopting  a  slave  constitution. 
As  an  inducement,  or  further  bribe,  as  it  was  called,  the  En- 
glish bill  provided  that  if  the  Lecompton  Constitution  was 
adopted  the  new  State  would  have  a  land  grant  of  20,000,000 
acres ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
were  rejected,  Kansas  would  not  only  lose  the  land  grant 
but  could  not  become  a  State  until  she  had  a  population 
of  94,000,  the  ratio  for  a  representative  in  Congress. 

Over  Senator  Douglas's  opposition,  the  English  bill  be- 
came a  law. 

Mr.  English's  "flops"  almost  cost  him  a  renomination 
and  then  an  election.  It  was  his  good  fortune  on  August  3 
to  have  the  people  of  Kansas  decide  by  a  vote  of  two  to 
one  — 10,000  to  5,000  —  to  stay  out  of  the  Union  rather  than 
adopt  the  Lecompton  Constitution.  So  long  as  Kansas 
did  not  actually  become  a  Slave  State,  and  John  M.  Wil- 
son, the  New  Albany  lawyer,  was  the  opposition  candidate, 
the  masses  of  the  Democrats  of  the  second  congressional 
district  were  content  to  vote  for  English's  re-election. 
Mr.  Wilson's  private  and  professional  life  was  vulnerable, 
and  on  these  lines  in  their  joint  discussions,  Mr.  English, 
who  was  an  aggressive  and  forcible  campaigner,  as  well  as 
a  man  of  physical  courage,  pressed  the  contest. 

As  a  public  man  Mr.  English  was  thoroughly  discredited. 


MARRIAGE  —  CAMPAIGN    OF    1858  77 

Mr.  Gresham  and  the  other  stump  speakers  argued  that 
he  had  broken  his  own  plighted  faith,  as  well  as  that  of 
his  party,  on  the  Kansas  question.  The  strictures  that  my 
husband  and  his  friends  had  passed  on  Douglas  in  the  previ- 
ous campaign  were  withdrawn,  and  he  and  the  principles  of 
his  bill  were  lauded  to  the  skies.  The  settlers  of  a  territory, 
so  long  as  they  prepared  to  organize  their  government  on  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  were  a  safer 
guide  than  Mr.  English  and  his  associates  in  Congress,  who 
proposed  to  legislate  on  the  lines  of  the  slave  code  of  South 
Carolina.  His  reduced  majority,  the  vigor  with  which  he 
was  attacked,  which  no  man  could  forever  endure  —  it  had 
been  kept  up  since  1854  —  and  the  bitterness  of  the  contest 
that  he  said  privately  he  knew  was  to  come,  led  Mr.  English 
to  announce  that  he  would  retire  at  the  end  of  his  term  in 
March,  1861.  He  did  so,  and  went  into  the  banking  busi- 
ness at  Indianapolis. 

My  husband  was  much  disappointed  that  Mr.  Mac- 
Donald  had  defeated  Judge  Otto  for  attorney-general  by 
a  small  margin,  less  than  2,000.  In  the  legislature  the 
Republicans  and  the  Anti-Lecompton  Democrats  were 
in  a  majority. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE   BRANDENBURG  AFFAIR 


WALTER  Q.  GRESHAM's  LAW  BUSINESS — THE  BRANDEN- 
BURG AFFAIR  —  HEROISM  OF  HORACE  BELL — ADJUSTMENT 
OF  THE  CONTROVERSY  WHICH  PROMISED  TO  END  IN  WAR  — 
STATUS  OF  SLAVEHOLDERS  AS  TO  WAR  —  STANLEY  YOUNG 
KILLS    COLONEL    MARSH. 

O LAUGHTER  and  Gresham  were  the  attorneys  for  the 
^  New  Albany  &  Corydon  Plank  Road  Company,  the 
only  corporation  operating  in  the  county.  In  1859  the 
firm  of  Slaughter  and  Gresham  was  dissolved.  This  became 
necessary  because  Mr.  Slaughter  was  commissioner  in  so 
many  partition  suits  and  administrator  of  so  many  estates, 
that  he  could  not  attend  to  his  share  of  the  firm's  business. 
My  husband  continued  alone  in  the  practice.  He  had  all 
kinds  of  litigation,  and  much  of  it  in  volume.  He  had  suits 
on  notes,  foreclosures  of  mortgages,  mandamus  proceedings, 
and  was  employed  to  assist  the  Democratic  prosecuting 
attorney  in  much  of  the  criminal  business.  He  succeeded 
in  convicting  one  defendant  who  feigned  sickness  and  was 
brought  into  court  on  a  cot.  He  defended  successfully 
another  defendant  under  indictment  for  murder.  In  the 
Crawford  Circuit  Court,  representing  some  creditors,  after 
a  long  contest  he  got  a  judgment  on  a  verdict  of  jury  for 
$30,000  against  the  silent  partners  of  a  firm  which  owned  a 
line  of  steamboats;  but  during  his  absence  in  the  army  it 
was  reversed  by  the  Indiana  Supreme  Court  and  the  claim 
was  lost.  There  were  Kentuckians  on  both  sides  of  that 
lawsuit.  In  those  days  there  were  scarcely  any  business 
corporations.  The  steamboats  on  the  Ohio  River  were 
owned  and  operated  almost  entirely  by  individuals.    During 

78 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  79 

the  special  session  of  the  legislature  in  the  Spring  of  1861, 
my  husband  came  home  long  enough  to  bring  a  number 
of  lawsuits,  all  of  which  he  turned  over  to  Mr.  Slaughter. 
During  the  first  year  of  the  war  Mr.  Slaughter  sent  him 
a  statement  of  his  business,  from  which  it  appears  he 
had  two  score  Kentucky  clients  scattered  along  the  river 
as  far  down  as  Cloverport  and  back  into  the  country  to 
Elizabethtown  and  Hardinsburg,  the  county  seats  respec- 
tively of  Hardin  and  Breckenridge  counties. 

His  most  dramatic  case  was  one  which  grew  out  of  the 
ever-present  slavery  question,  which  was  known  as  the 
"Brandenburg  Affair."  It  was  an  extreme  example  of  the 
peculiar  conditions  then  existing  along  the  border,  and 
was  so  serious  that  for  a  time  fear  existed  that  it  might 
bring  on  war.  It  was  so  notorious  that  it  was  subsequently 
dramatized  and  staged.  That  it  was  finally  settled  without 
bloodshed  was  largely  owing  to  the  conciliatory  spirit  in 
which  Walter  Q.  Gresham  conducted  his  client's  case. 

This  client,  Horace  Bell,  the  hero  of  the  "Brandenburg 
Affair,"  was  the  son  of  David  J.  Bell,  who  in  1839  had  pur- 
chased the  "Brandenburg  ferry"  and  the  farm  in  Harrison 
County,  Indiana,  on  the  Ohio  River  opposite  Brandenburg, 
the  county  seat  of  Meade  County,  Kentucky.  From  the 
earliest  times  there  had  been  a  ferry  at  this  point  and  a 
highway  thence  via  Mauckport  to  Cory  don.1  Most  of  the 
people  of  the  southern  part  of  Harrison  County,  as  the 
saying  was,  "did  their  trading"  at  Brandenburg. 

David  J.  Bell  and  his  wife  were  of  good  Revolutionary 
War  stock  and  were  born  and  raised  in  Washingtontown, 
then  a  part  of  Virginia  but  thrown  into  Pennsylvania  by  the 
final  location  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line.  The  operation 
of  the  constitution  and  laws  of  Pennsylvania  freed  the  slaves 
of  Mrs.  Bell's  father,  who  was  a  Wright.  Another  of  the 
daughters,  Julia  Wright,  became  the  wife  of  Doctor  Jones 
of  Cory  don,  and  the  mother  of  Doctor  Mitchell  Jones, 
my  husband's  most  intimate  friend.     David  J.  Bell   left 

1  See  page  33. 


80       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Pennsylvania  and  settled  first  at  Wheeling;  thence  in  1829 
he  moved  to  New  Albany,  where  in  1830  Horace  was  born. 
Oswald  Wright,  one  of  the  former  slaves  of  the  father  of 
Mrs.  Jones,  followed  ''Miss  Julia"  to  Corydon  and  became 
one  of  the  free  negroes  of  the  town.  He  lived  in  a  small 
house  that  belonged  to  the  elder  Doctor  Jones.  The  Bell 
children,  better  educated  than  was  the  custom  of  that  time, 
went  to  school  in  Brandenburg,  except  the  youngest  boy, 
Charles.  He  had  lived  most  of  his  life  with  his  Aunt  Julia. 
By  1857  Charles  Bell's  head  was  completely  turned  by  the 
anti-slavery  agitation  of  the  time  and  by  the  stories  his 
Aunt  Julia  told  him  about  what  the  boys  had  dared  in  the 
early  'so's.  Had  "Aunt  Julia"  lived  in  these  days,  she 
would  have  been  a  "militant."  And  her  sister,  Mrs.  David 
J.  Bell,  was  certainly  a  Spartan  if  ever  a  woman  was  one. 
In  185 1,  when  Horace  Bell  was  twenty  years  of  age,  his 
father  sold  a  negro  boy  he  had  "indentured, "  to  a  relative 
in  Meade  County,  Kentucky,  and  with  the  purchase  price, 
five  hundred  dollars,  equipped  Horace  for  migration  to 
California,  where  John,  the  senior  brother,  had  gone  with 
the  "forty-niners."  Up  to  this  time  the  elder  Bell  was  not 
an  Abolitionist,  and  he  never  afterwards  admitted  that  he 
was  one;  neither  did  Horace  Bell,  although  he  lived  right  in 
the  midst  of  the  greatest  activities  of  the  Underground  Rail- 
road in  the  late  '4o's  and  early  'so's.  I  use  the  term  Aboli- 
tionist in  the  technical  sense  of  that  time,  an  advocate  of 
forcible  resistance  of  the  law.  From  California,  Horace 
went  to  Nicaragua  with  the  Walker  Expedition.  He  served 
under  Walker  for  two  years,  rising  to  the  rank  of  major. 
Reports  came  back  of  his  gallantry  in  battle,  of  his  affairs 
of  honor  and  of  the  heart.  The  fact  that  Walker's  purpose 
was  to  establish  slavery  in  Nicaragua  satisfied  some  of  the 
Kentuckians  that  the  Bells  were  not  Abolitionists,  and  they 
were  not  without  friends  and  partisans  among  the  best 
people  and  largest  land  and  slave  owners  in  Meade  County. 
But  many  of  the  Kentuckians  in  1858  believed  and  claimed 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  81 

that  the  Bells  not  only  assisted  but  had  even  encouraged  the 
Kentucky  slaves  to  leave  their  masters.  I  still  share  some  of 
the  prejudices  of  that  time  against  the  Bells.  On  the  Indiana 
side  it  was  the  belief  that  no  runaway  negro  was  ever  denied 
assistance  by  the  Bells.  David  J.  Bell  had  aided  in  captur- 
ing Levi  Sipes  after  he  had  murdered  my  husband's  father, 
and  Horace  Bell  knew  the  Gresham  boys,  especially  Walter. 

At  this  time  there  lived  in  Brandenburg  a  negro  black- 
smith named  Charles,  who  was  the  property  of  Dr.  C.  H. 
Ditto,  a  large  slaveholder  who  lived  in  Meade  County  nine 
miles  back  from  the  river.  Charles  had  a  wife,  Mary  Ann, 
who  belonged  to  A.  J.  Alexander,  one  of  the  merchants  of 
Brandenburg.  The  pair  lived  near  the  river  in  a  small 
house  belonging  to  Alexander.  Charles  was  a  skillful  work- 
man, a  valuable  slave,  and  so  trusted  that  he  was  permitted 
to  have  a  skiff  in  which  he  was  allowed  to  cross  the  river 
to  fish  and  to  shoe  horses  for  people  on  the  Indiana  side.1 

On  Friday  evening,  the  26th  day  of  September,  1857, 
Charles  Bell,  a  seventeen-year-old  boy,  and  the  negro 
Charles  were  seen  in  Brandenburg  at  the  blacksmith  shop. 
Later,  about  ten  o'clock,  Charles  Bell  started  from  the 
Brandenburg  wharf  boat  in  a  skiff  for  the  Indiana  side. 
Early  the  next  morning,  Saturday,  the  slave  gave  it  out 
he  was  going  to  the  Indiana  side  to  fish.  This  was  the  last 
ever  seen  of  him  in  Brandenburg.  On  the  Monday  follow- 
ing, as  he  was  not  in  the  blacksmith  shop  in  Brandenburg, 
the  cry  was  raised  that  he  had  run  away.  It  happened 
that  on  the  same  Saturday,  starting  early,  the  elder  Bell 
rode  on  horseback  across  the  country  to  New  Albany,  and 
thence  by  ferry  to  Louisville,  for  the  purpose  of  cashing  a 
draft  Horace  Bell  had  sent  him  from  California.  Return- 
ing home,  he  remained  over  Sunday  in  New  Albany.  On 
his  journey  back  on  Monday,  when  near  home  late  in  the 
afternoon,  he  was  met  by  a  party  of  Kentuckians,  or  "slave 
hunters,"  as  the  Bells  afterwards  called  them,  hunting  for 
the  missing  blacksmith.     They  stopped  the  old  man  and 

iSee  pages  37  to  41;  also  100  to  102. 


82        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

proceeded  to  ask  him  where  he  had  been  and  for  what. 
He  returned  the  curt  answer,  ''It  is  none  of  your  business." 
One  night  two  weeks  later,  a  party  of  Kentuckians  sur- 
rounded the  Bell  house,  which  stood  just  above  high-water 
mark  facing  south  towards  the  river,  and  by  force  removed 
the  father,  Charles  Bell,  and  the  free  negro,  Oswald  Wright, 
to  the  ferry  boat  that  lay  at  the  Bell  landing.  Before  the 
boat  swung  out  into  the  river  a  Kentucky  constable  read 
a  warrant,  charging  the  Bells  with  having  stolen  the  negro, 
Charles,  and  commanding  that  they  be  brought  forthwith 
before  a  magistrate  in  Brandenburg.  Kentucky  had  always 
claimed  jurisdiction  over  the  Ohio  River  to  low-water  mark 
on  the  Indiana  side,  and  as  the  river  was  then  low  and  the 
boat  lay  below  the  low-water  line,  the  pretext  was  afterwards 
made  that  the  apprehension  was  under  the  warrant.  From 
the  Brandenburg  wharf  the  Bells  and  Wright  were  taken 
direct  to  the  Brandenburg  jail.  The  next  day  there  was  a 
preliminary  hearing  before  the  magistrate  who  issued  the 
warrant.  At  this  hearing  it  developed  from  the  testimony 
of  C.  B.  Johnson  of  Brownstown,  Jackson  County,  Indiana, 
and  Mrs.  Withers  of  the  same  place,  that  after  Johnson  saw 
a  reward  offered  in  the  newspapers  for  the  return  of  the 
negro,  Charles,  he  visited  Cory  don  and  the  Bells  at  their 
farm  under  the  guise  of  a  horse  trader ;  that  Wright  confided 
in  him  that  he  had  conveyed  the  negro,  Charles,  from  the 
Bell  farm  to  Brownstown  on  the  Cincinnati  &  St.  Louis 
Railroad;  that  Charles  Bell  told  him  that  they  had  planned 
the  escape  of  the  negro,  as  Wright  said  he  had  done,  and 
that  Wright  had  loaned  his  free  papers  to  Charles  to  help 
him  along,  should  his  right  to  freedom  be  questioned,  and 
that  they  proposed  next  to  carry  off  Mary  Ann.  But 
Mary  Ann  lived  and  died  in  Brandenburg.  Charles  escaped 
to  Canada.  Mrs.  Withers  identified  Wright  as  a  negro 
who  came  to  her  house  in  Brownstown  on  Monday  morning, 
the  29th  day  of  September,  1857,  and  said  he  had  left  a 
negro  named  Charles  Ditto  at  the  depot;  and  upon  her 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  83 

agreeing  to  give  them  breakfast,  Wright  left  and  returned 
with  the  other,  and  she  then  gave  them  breakfast.  That 
Wright  should  make  this  statement  to  a  stranger  —  Mrs. 
Withers  —  as  she  admitted  she  was,  the  Bell  attorneys 
afterwards  claimed  was  most  improbable.  Wright  denied 
he  ever  made  such  a  statement.  Both  David  and  Charles 
Bell  denied  all  complicity  in  the  escape  of  the  negro.  They 
were  remanded  to  the  jail,  and  on  the  25th  of  November 
the  grand  jury  of  Meade  County  returned  six  indict- 
ments  against   them.1 

The  elder  Dr.  Mitchell  Jones  was  greatly  excited  when 
he  heard  of  the  arrest.  He  employed  Judge  Porter  and 
Samuel  Keen  to  defend  the  Bells  and  Oswald  Wright. 
Judge  Porter  and  Mr.  Keen  in  turn  employed  T.  B.  Farleigh 
and  John  Coale  of  the  Brandenburg  bar  to  appear  in  court. 
This  the  Kentucky  lawyers  did  with  fidelity  and  ability. 
They  took  advantage  of  all  the  technicalities  that  due  proc- 
ess of  law  afforded  in  defending  their  clients. 

Horace  and  John  Bell  immediately  started  for  home 
from  California  when  they  heard  of  the  kidnapping  of  their 
father  and  brother.  They  came  back  by  way  of  Panama 
and  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers.  John  got  off  the 
boat  at  Tobacco  Landing,  the  first  landing  above  Bran- 
denburg on  the  Indiana  side,  and  went  to  his  mother,  who 
had  remained  in  the  meanwhile  on  the  farm.  This  was  in 
May,  1858.  Horace  went  on  to  New  Albany,  then  to 
Corydon,  where  he  walked  into  Mr.  Gresham's  office  and 
insisted  that  his  boyhood  friend  should  be  his  lawyer.     At 

1  First:  "Commonwealth  vs.  David  J.  Bell,  Charles  Bell,  and  Oswald  Wright  (a  free 
man  of  color),  charged  with  enticing  Charles,  a  slave,  to  leave  his  owner.     (Joint  indictment.)  " 

Second:  "Commonwealth  vs.  David  J.  Bell,  Charles  Bell  and  Oswald  Wright,  charged 
with  stealing  Charles,  a  slave,  from  his  owner." 

Third:  "  Commonwealth  vs.  David  J.  Bell,  Charles  A.  Bell,  and  Oswald  Wright,  charged 
with  enticing  a  female  slave  named  Mary  Ann  to  leave  her  owner." 

Fourth:  "  Commonwealth  vs.  David  J.  Bell,  Charles  A.  Bell  and  Oswald  Wright,  charged 
with  conspiring  to  run  off  a  slave  named  Charles." 

Fifth:  "Commonwealth  vs.  David  J.  Bell,  Charles  A.  Bell  and  Oswald  Wright,  charged 
with  conspiring  to  run  off  a  female  slave,  Mary  Ann." 

Sixth:  "Commonwealth  vs.  Oswald  Wright,  charged  with  furnishing  a  slave  named 
Charles  with  forged  and  false  papers," 


84       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

this  time  Horace  Bell  was  a  tall,  handsome  man.  Stories 
told  of  him  —  many,  no  doubt,  the  product  of  the  imagina- 
tion—  did  much  to  excite  the  popular  mind.  One  was  that 
he  had  twice  appeared  on  the  field  of  honor,  and  that 
while  he  had  lived  to  tell  the  tale  it  was  not  so  with  his 
opponents,  for  he  was  a  dead  shot. 

Colonel  William  C.  Marsh,  soon  after  the  kidnapping, 
raised  a  large  force  of  armed  men  with  the  intention  of  cross- 
ing the  river  and  releasing  the  prisoners.  But  the  expedi- 
tion miscarried  because  the  boats  that  were  to  transport 
Colonel  Marsh's  forces  failed  to  reach  Leavenworth,  the 
meeting  point,  at  the  appointed  time.  There  were  on  guard 
in  Brandenburg,  the  Meade  County  Rangers,  a  company 
of  militia,  and  several  companies  of  the  Kentucky  Legion 
ordered  there  by  the  Governor  of  Kentucky  to  prevent 
the  release  of  the  prisoners.  All  were  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Jack  Armstrong,  who  had  served  with  Horace 
Bell  in  Nicaragua.  At  first  the  return  of  Horace  and  John 
Bell  added  to  the  excitement.  They  were  tendered  the 
aid  of  five  hundred  men  to  invade  Brandenburg.  But 
acting  on  the  advice  of  my  husband,  they  publicly  declined 
this  offer.  Then  Horace  Bell,  although  notified  by  letter 
that  he  would  be  promptly  shot  if  he  came  to  Brandenburg, 
went  there  with  my  husband  and  endeavored  to  secure  a 
release  of  his  father  and  brother  on  bonds.  Alanson  More- 
man  and  Olie  C.  Richardson,  both  slaveholders  and  two  of 
the  largest  landowners  in  Meade  County,  offered  to  become 
sureties  for  the  Bells  in  any  reasonable  amount,  but  the 
penalties  named  were  so  high  that  they  refused  to  qualify. 
Bell  was  taunted  on  the  streets  of  Brandenburg  with  being 
a  coward.  He  afterwards  claimed  that  but  for  the  advice 
of  his  counsel,  he  could  not  have  borne  this.  One  day  after 
an  adjournment  of  court  a  crowd  followed  them  to  the 
hotel.  Here  Bell  made  a  short  speech.  He  said  he  did  not 
propose  to  involve  the  States  in  a  border  warfare;  that  he 
had  declined  the  aid  of  armed  men;  that  he  had  come  to 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  85 

Kentucky  to  get  justice  in  the  courts  and,  failing  in  that,  he 
and  his  brother  alone  would  come  there  in  daylight,  break 
the  jail,  and  take  the  prisoners  out.  This,  contrary  to  my 
husband's  fears,  the  crowd  regarded  as  a  joke,  and  said 
that  a  man  who  talked  as  big  as  Horace  Bell  did  would 
not  attempt  anything. 

Two  weeks  later  my  husband  came  home  from  Branden- 
burg greatly  distressed.  He  had  gone  there  about  the  Bell 
matter  and  while  he,  Horace  Bell,  and  Colonel  Marsh  were 
standing  in  front  of  the  Brandenburg  Hotel  talking,  Stanley 
Young,  from  a  balcony  above,  shot  Marsh  dead.  They 
stood  so  close  together  that  some  of  Marsh's  lifeblood 
spurted  on  my  husband's  clothes.  Colonel  Posey  was 
greatly  excited  and  thought  it  strange  that  Stanley  Young 
would  risk  shooting  his  own  lawyer  and  friend  in  order  to 
kill  an  enemy.  Stanley  Young  was  my  husband's  school- 
mate and  one  of  his  first  clients.  In  my  first  chapter  I 
described  him  and  how  Colonel  Marsh  killed  his  father.  It 
was  erroneously  supposed  that  this  was  an  incident  of  the 
Brandenburg  affair,  but  it  was  not  —  Stanley  Young  merely 
took  advantage  of  the  excitement  of  the  Bell  kidnapping  to 
kill  the  slayer  of  his  father.  He  immediately  escaped.  He 
was  indicted  by  the  Meade  County  grand  jury,  but  was 
never  apprehended.  His  lawyer  settled  his  father's  estate 
and  remitted  to  him  his  portion  of  it.  He  came  back  to 
Brandenburg  and  Corydon  in  1863  with  Morgan's  Raiders, 
and  died  in  southern  Illinois  a  much  respected  and  pros- 
perous citizen,  but  under  another  name. 

Among  the  efforts  my  husband  made  looking  to  the 
release  of  the  Bells,  he  led  a  party  to  Governor  Willard 
and  demanded  that  he,  as  Governor  of  Indiana,  demand  of 
the  State  of  Kentucky  the  return  of  the  abducted  men. 
But  Willard  refused  to  interfere. 

One  day  at  noon  Horace  Bell  walked  into  the  office  of 
Walter  Q.  Gresham.  He  had  just  ridden  up  from  the 
Bell  farm.     My  husband  and  his  client  were  alone.     Bell 


86       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

told  Mr.  Gresham  his  plan  was  to  disappear  and  have  the 
rumor  go  out  that  he  and  his  brother  John  had  gone  back 
to  California.  The  quiet  that  would  follow,  he  said,  he 
thought  would  cause  the  Kentucky  authorities  to  decrease 
the  number  of  guards  and  relax  their  vigilance.  Then,  when 
the  excitement  was  allayed,  Horace  Bell  said,  "My  plan  is 
for  John  and  me  to  cross  the  river,  surprise  the  jailor,  re- 
lease father  and  Charles,  arm  them  and  get  back  to  the 
Indiana  side  without  firing  a  shot,  if  possible;  otherwise,  to 
fight."  The  only  answer  received  was,  "The  audacity  of 
your  plan  will  almost  warrant  its  success."  Without  an- 
other word  Bell  left  the  office  and  went  back  to  the  river. 

There  was  to  be  a  picnic  up  the  river,  and  Horace  and 
John  Bell  calculated  that  many  of  the  Brandenburg  men 
would  attend  it.  Meanwhile  the  report  had  gone  forth 
that  they  had  left  for  California.  Horace,  although  the 
younger,  was  the  leader.  John  doubted  the  success  of  the 
plan,  but  Mrs.  Bell,  who  was  at  home  sick,  sided  with 
Horace. 

On  the  27th  of  July,  1858,  just  before  noon,  Horace  and 
John  strapped  on  their  revolvers,  and  with  a  carpet  bag 
loaded  with  six-shooters  and  ammunition,  got  into  a  skiff, 
with  a  fourteen-year-old  mulatto  boy  as  oarsman,  and 
rowed  over  to  Brandenburg.  The  boy  was  indentured  to 
the  elder  Bell.  He  was  the  son  of  a  distinguished  Kentucky 
lawyer. 

In  order  to  attract  as  little  attention  as  possible,  Horace 
took  one  street  and  John  the  other,  south  to  the  jail,  which 
stood  on  the  south  side  of  the  public  square  about  one- 
quarter  mile  back  from  the  river.  Between  the  jail  and 
the  river,  on  the  north  side  of  the  square  facing  south,  was 
the  court  house  in  which  were  the  arms  and  ammunition 
of  the  guards  or  minute  men,  who  were  the  county  officers, 
the  lawyers,  and  the  merchants  of  the  town.  The  lawyers' 
offices  lined  the  west  side  of  the  square.  On  the  east  side 
were  the  stores,     As  the  Bell  boys  had  calculated,  most  of 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  87 

the  people  of  the  town  were  at  their  noonday  meal  and  the 
surprise  was  perfect.  Horace  reached  the  jail  first.  The 
jailor  and  his  wife  and  two  guards  were  at  the  dinner  table. 
At  the  point  of  the  revolver  the  dinner  party  was  driven 
into  one  corner  of  the  room ;  but  not  soon  enough  to  prevent 
one  of  the  guards  from  jumping  out  of  a  rear  window  and 
giving  the  alarm,  which  created  an  awful  din.  Meanwhile 
John  came  in,  got  the  jail  keys  from  the  bureau  drawer, 
sprang  upstairs,  unlocked  the  jail  doors,  armed  his  father 
and  Charles  and  locked  the  other  prisoners  in.  Tempo- 
rarily Oswald  Wright  had  been  removed  from  the  jail. 
Years  afterwards  I  asked  Horace  Bell  what  he  would  have 
done  with  Oswald  Wright  had  he  found  him  in  the  jail  with 
his  father  and  brother.  His  answer  was,  "I  don't  know, 
he  was  no  kin  of  mine."  As  the  three  came  downstairs, 
Horace  ran  to  the  court  house  where  the  arms  were  stacked, 
before  the  minute  men  could  assemble,  and  held  them  off 
as  the  others  retreated  to  the  river.  The  mulatto  boy  had 
proved  faithful  and  was  there  with  the  skiff.  As  the  Bells 
were  descending  to  the  levee,  the  crowd  opened  fire  on  them, 
but  as  the  firing  was  from  an  elevation,  the  bullets  passed 
over  them.  They  returned  the  fire,  purposely  shooting 
high,  which  was  enough  to  cause  their  pursuers  to  retreat. 
Then  they  rushed  to  their  boat  and  without  further  moles- 
tation, except  a  few  straggling  shots,  crossed  safely  to  the 
Indiana  side.     No  one  was  hurt. 

Horace  Bell  was  the  hero  of  the  hour,  and,  as  he  himself 
afterwards  said,  did  too  much  exulting  and  drank  too  much 
"John  Barleycorn."  On  October  25,  1858,  while  quietly 
walking  the  streets  of  New  Albany  during  the  State  fair, 
he  was  seized  by  three  men,  who  pounced  upon  him  from 
behind  and  rushed  him  to  one  of  the  ferry  boats  of  the 
New  Albany  and  Portland  ferry,  which,  as  had  been  previ- 
ously arranged,  immediately  put  off  to  the  Kentucky  side. 
That  night  he  was  driven  under  strong  guard  to  Branden- 
burg, and  there  locked  up  on  the  charge  of  having  broken 


88        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

jail.  Upon  the  report  that  expeditions  were  organizing  at 
New  Albany  and  Corydon  to  release  him,  he  was  removed 
next  morning  to  Big  Springs,  a  small  town  ten  miles  south 
of  the  river.  Here,  under  guard,  he  was  kept  in  the  hotel 
until  the  next  night.  Meanwhile  a  large  body  of  men  from 
New  Albany  came  down  the  river  on  a  steamboat  with  two 
cannons  on  its  deck,  and  anchored  in  front  of  Brandenburg. 
Part  of  the  men  from  the  steamboat  joined  a  party  from 
Corydon,  who  landed  on  the  Kentucky  side  and  camped 
upon  the  farm  of  Alonzo  Norman  above  Brandenburg. 
The  next  night  Bell  was  removed  farther  back  into  the 
interior  to  a  schoolhouse. 

Meantime,  as  Captain  J.  M.  Phillips  —  afterwards  a 
successful  member  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  then  a 
merchant  in  Brandenburg  —  put  it,  ''Walter  Q.  Gresham 
made  overtures  for  a  settlement,  which  was  promptly 
sanctioned  by  the  leading  slaveholders  of  Meade  County, 
as  they  deprecated  the  actions  of  the  hotheads  on  their 
side  and  feared  the  complications  that  might  ensue  if  Bell 
was  detained  too  long.  ...  At  that  time  Judge  Gres- 
ham, although  a  young  man,  was  well  known  and  popular 
on  the  Kentucky  side  of  the  river,  and  when  he  came  cam- 
paigning through  the  river  townships  of  Harrison  County, 
many  Kentuckians  always  went  over  to  his  meetings." 

The  agreement  was  that  Bell  was  to  have  a  preliminary 
hearing  before  the  town  magistrate  of  Brandenburg  and  be 
held  to  bail  to  appear  at  the  November  term  of  the  Meade 
County  Circuit  Court,  in  bonds  of  $750.  From  the  school- 
house,  still  under  an  armed  escort,  Bell  was  taken  to  the 
farm  of  Olie  C.  Richardson,  where  a  sumptuous  breakfast 
was  served,  and  thence  by  a  guard  and  escort  of  three 
hundred  men  to  Brandenburg,  where  after  a  semblance  of 
a  hearing  before  two  justices  of  the  peace,  he  was  released. 
Alanson  Moreman  and  J.  M.  Phillips  of  Meade  County,  both 
slaveowners,  and  John  R.  Conners  of  New  Albany,  were 
accepted  as  sureties  on  his  bond.     But  instead  of  appearing 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  89 

at  the  November  term  of  the  Meade  County  Circuit  Court, 
as  it  was  understood  he  would,  Horace  Bell  returned  to 
California.  The  bond  was  declared  forfeited,  and  at  the 
May  term  in  1859,  a  judgment  was  rendered  against  the 
sureties.  This  judgment  was  subsequently  satisfied  by 
the  executive  branch  of  the  Kentucky  government  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  understanding  had  at  the  time  that  they 
would  never  be  required  to  pay  anything  by  reason  of  be- 
ing Horace  Bell's  bondsmen.  "But,"  said  Captain  Phil- 
lips, "we  could  not  get  the  prosecuting  attorney  to  remit 
his  fees  and  we  had  to  pay  him." 

The  indictments  against  David  and  Charles  Bell  were 
stricken  off  the  Kentucky  dockets,  but  were  never  dis- 
missed. A  civil  suit  in  attachment,  which  had  been  begun 
on  the  27  th  day  of  October,  1857,  m  the  Meade  County  Cir- 
cuit Court  under  a  pretense  of  jurisdiction  against  David  and 
Charles  Bell  and  Oswald  Wright,  to  recover  the  value  of 
the  slave,  and  had  passed  into  a  judgment  by  default  against 
the  Bells  and  Wright  in  the  sum  of  $2,000  and  $100  respect- 
ively, was  never  attempted  to  be  enforced  in  Indiana.  Of 
course,  in  those  days  of  discrimination  in  every  State  in  the 
Union  against  the  freedman,  it  was  a  difficult  task  for  the 
Kentucky  lawyers  to  free  Oswald  Wright.  But  "Tom" 
Farleigh,  my  husband's  friend,  whom  we  will  meet  again  in 
a  great  emergency,  came  up  to  the  best  traditions  of  the 
American  bar.  It  was  agreed  in  advance  it  would  not  do 
for  any  lawyer  from  the  north  side  of  the  river  to  appear 
for  Wright.  At  the  May  term,  1859,  Oswald  Wright  was 
placed  on  trial  for  stealing  the  negro  Charles,  and  although 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  was  properly  questioned,  he 
was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  the  Kentucky  penitentiary 
for  five  years.  But  so  well  had  Farleigh  and  Coale  done 
their  work  in  their  objections  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  trial 
court,  that  Wright  was  soon  released  and  returned  to  Cory- 
don,  where  he  lived  until  his  death.  He  was  a  good  negro, 
industrious,  and  saved  his  earnings.     By  his  last  will  he 


90       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

left  his  property,  which  consisted  of  two  houses  and  lots, 
to  Mrs.  Julia  Jones. 

Soon  the  Bell  farm  was  sold,  and  David  and  Mrs.  Bell 
went  to  Ohio  and  then  to  Missouri  to  live.  John  followed 
Horace  back  to  California.  "Charlie"  Bell  returned  to 
Cory  don  and  remained  there  until  he  enlisted  early  in  1861 
in  the  20th  Indiana  Volunteers.  He  was  killed  before 
Petersburg  in  1864,  being  then  a  captain  but  in  command 
of  his  regiment.  Seven  regimental  commanders  ahead  of 
him  had  met  his  fate.  He  was  a  gallant  soldier,  and  the 
commission  which  would  have  still  further  promoted  him 
never  reached  him. 

It  was  the  belief  in  Cory  don  that  David  J.  Bell  knew 
nothing  of  the  plan  to  "run  off"  the  negroes  Charles  and 
Mary  Ann,  but  there  never  was  any  doubt  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  that  Charlie  Bell  planned  and  executed  the  escape. 
Horace  Bell  said  he  never  inquired  as  to  exactly  what  had 
happened  before  he  returned  from  California.  My  husband 
uniformly  said  he  was  not  called  on  to  express  an  opinion, 
except  that  Kentucky  had  not  acquired  jurisdiction  over 
the  persons  of  the  Bells  and  Oswald  Wright.  Considerate 
and  deferential  as  he  was,  when  the  time  came  to  act  he 
never  hesitated.  In  1886  Horace  Bell  entered  the  news- 
paper field  at  Los  Angeles.  It  was  not  long  until  he  was 
sued  for  $300,000  damages  for  libel  by  "Lucky"  Baldwin. 
In  the  prosecution  of  the  suit,  Baldwin  assailed  Bell  on 
account  of  his  record  in  the  Brandenburg  Affair.  Bell 
appealed  to  United  States  Circuit  Judge  W.  Q.  Gresham 
at  Chicago.  The  answer  was :  ' '  Your  conduct  from  begin- 
ning to  end  in  the  Brandenburg  Affair  was  praiseworthy 
and  honorable." 

There  was  great  exultation  among  the  anti-slavery  people 
along  the  border  over  the  Brandenburg  Affair.  This  my 
husband  deprecated  all  he  could.  On  the  other  hand  some 
of  the  good  people  of  Meade  and  adjoining  counties  in  Ken- 
tucky approved  the  action  of  Horace  and  John  Bell,  and 


THE    BRANDENBURG    AFFAIR  91 

rejoiced  in  their  successes.  Doctor  Ditto's  brother,  himself 
a  slaveholder  by  inheritance,  publicly  commended  Horace 
Bell  for  his  gallantry.  Captain  Phillips  afterwards  told 
me:  "I  admired  Horace  Bell's  nerve  and  was  glad  to  go  on 
his  bond.  Besides,"  he  said,  "I  never  was  much  of  a  'nigger 
man.'  My  father  left  me  a  few  slaves;  I  could  not  free 
them  under  the  Kentucky  law  without  giving  a  bond  for 
their  support.  It  was  cheaper  for  me  to  keep  them  and 
support  them  than  to  enter  into  a  bond  with  the  State 
of  Kentucky  which  might  involve  liabilities  I  could  not 
foresee." 

Captain  Phillips  was  a  fine  type  of  Kentuckian,  as  well 
as  a  man  of  means  and  a  far-sighted,  clear-headed  busi- 
ness man.  When  he  was  an  operator  on  the  Board  of  Trade 
the  big  men  could  not  lower  or  raise  the  market  too  fast  to 
catch  him.  He,  as  other  men  in  1861,  saw  the  economic  if 
not  the  moral  side  of  slavery.  At  that  time  there  were 
only  100,000  slaveholders  in  the  United  States.  Ten  years 
later,  under  the  workings  of  the  system  their  numbers  would 
have  been  less.  "The  proposition  to  arm  the  slaves  never 
found  favor  with  the  rich  men  of  the  South,"  as  an  old  ex- 
Confederate  once  said  to  me.  "A  young  able-bodied  negro 
was  too  valuable  an  animal  to  be  made  the  target  for 
Yankee  bullets."  "A  rich  man's  war  and  a  poor  man's 
fight,"  is  a  misnomer.  It  was  not  the  large  slaveholders 
who  rushed  Mississippi  into  secession,  and  it  was  the  large 
slaveholders  who  helped  to  hold  Kentucky  back. 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS   DEBATES 


LINCOLN  S  HOUSE  DIVIDED  AGAINST  ITSELF  SPEECH, 
WHICH  LED  TO  THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES — THE  PRE- 
TEXT FOR  SECESSION — THE  DRED  SCOTT  CASE  —  MR.  LIN- 
COLN'S ASSAULT  ON  CHIEF  JUSTICE  TANEY  —  THE  DRED  SCOTT 
CASE  AS  PART  OF  THE  ABOLITIONISTS'  SYSTEM  OF  AGITATION 
AND   REVOLUTION. 

T  HEARD  much  of  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates  that 
*  grew  out  of  the  "House  Divided  against  Itself" 
speech.  Again  and  again  I  heard  my  husband  as  a  lawyer 
discuss  that  debate  with  the  best  lawyers  in  the  land.  It 
may  be  only  a  woman's  idea,  but  if  it  be  true  that  that 
speech,  which  contained  the  attack  on  Chief  Justice  Taney 
and  the  declaration  that  ! '  the  Union  cannot  exist  half  slave, 
half  free,"  and  in  which  he  said  he  would  not  obey  the 
Dred  Scott  case  if  a  member  of  Congress,  made  Mr.  Lin- 
coln president,  it  also  brought  war  and  secession. 

There  was  wisdom  in  the  advice  of  the  twenty  men,  all 
anti-slavery  and  practical  politicians,  among  them  his  law 
partner,  to  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  submitted  early  in  June, 
1858,  at  the  State  House  in  Springfield,  that  most  famous 
speech  in  manuscript  form.  The  judgment  was  unanimous 
that  it  should  not  be  delivered. 

It  was  "unconditional  and  immediate  absolutism." 
The  thought  was  Wendell  Phillips',  the  words  only  were 
Abraham  Lincoln's. 

In  the  early  days  of  his  administration,  Mr.  Lincoln,  in 
answer  to  a  question  as  to  what  he  would  do,  said:  "We 
will  manage  to  keep  house  some  way."  Keeping  house, 
many  women  will  admit,  is  not  an  easy  task;  less  difficult, 

92 


THE    LINCOLN-DOUGLAS    DEBATES  93 

some  assert,  and  the  men  have  not  entirely  succeeded  at 
it,  than  running  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  ultimate  analysis  the  two  are  not  entirely  different, 
and  on  many  occasions  I  have  had  a  hand,  as  has  many 
another  woman  who  has  been  on  the  inside,  in  starting  or 
in  setting  in  motion  the  most  important  part  of  the  machin- 
ery of  the  government  of  the  United  States.1 

Born  and  bred  to  a  system  that  denied  to  a  human  being 
with  one-sixteenth  African  blood  in  his  or  her  veins  the  right 
even  to  testify  in  a  white  man's  court,  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
understood  what  the  historian  does  not  seem  to  com- 
prehend, that  the  negro  who  could  not  testify  in  a  white 
man's  court  should  not  be  permitted  to  sue  a  white  man, 
much  less  a  white  woman,  in  a  white  man's  court,  and  that 
freeing  a  slave  did  not  elevate  that  slave  to  citizenship.2 

The  inherent  evidence  tends  to  confirm  one  of  the  rumors 
of  those  days,  that  the  Dred  Scott  case  was  made  up  — 
made  up  by  the  Abolitionists.  If  so,  it  would  not  be  the 
first  time  the  same  man  or  interest  imposed  on  a  court  by 
running  both  sides  of  a  lawsuit  without  even  the  contending 
lawyers  being  on  the  inside. 

The  most  insidious  species  of  flattery  is  to  tell  an  old 
man  his  ipse  dixit  will  settle  a  great  controversy.  Adopting 
the  language  of  Justice  Story  in  the  Prigg  case,3  which  had 
been  so  fruitful  of  agitation,  old  Justice  Wayne  said  in  his 
concurring  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott  case:  "The  case 
involves  private  rights  of  value  and  constitutional  princi- 
ples of  the  highest  importance,  about  which  there  has 
come  such  a  difference  of  opinion  that  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  the  country  requires  the  settlement  of  them  by 
judicial  decision."  However  it  may  be  viewed  at  this  late 
day,  I  think  all  will  agree  that  the  decision  in  the  Dred 
Scott  case  did  not  make  for  "peace  and  harmony." 

Well  may  the  court  have  sidestepped,  for  the  Union 

1  See  Chapter  XXV,  pages  416-419. 

2  See  Chapter  XIX. 

3  See  Chapter  II,  pages  42-44. 


94       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Senator  John  Bell  of  Tennessee  had  objected  in  the  Com- 
promise of  1850  that  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  terri- 
tories was  a  political  one  and  that  no  court  was  strong 
enough  to  decide  it.  But  Congress,  with  the  approval  of 
every  public  man  in  the  country,  by  the  Compromise  pro- 
vided that  every  question  involving  slavery  in  the  terri- 
tories might  go  to  the  Supreme  Court. 

Here  was  the  opening  the  Abolitionist  lawyer  wanted. 
Should  Associate  Justice  Benjamin  R.  Curtis  stick  to  his 
early  views  and  concur  with  the  court  that  it  was  a  pro- 
slavery  Constitution,  it  would  establish  one  of  their  premises 
to  support  their  conclusion  that  the  Union  should  be  broken 
up.  But  they  had  overcome  him  by  the  "power  of  their 
intellect  and  the  brilliance  of  their  language." 

They  believed  that  he  would  eat  his  own  words  that 
slavery  was  moral,  agree  with  them  it  was  immoral,  and 
then  endeavor  to  construe  the  pro-slavery  Constitution  as  a 
free  instrument.  But  whether  or  not  he  would  influence 
any  of  his  brethren  was  immaterial,  for  either  course  would 
help  their  plan  of  agitation  to  increase  the  bitterness  of 
the  sections,  so  that  war  might  follow  unless  the  so-called 
statesmen,  as  they  said,  should  settle  the  controversy 
as  statesmen  should  and  as  the  English  Abolitionists  had 
forced  the  English  statesmen  to  do. 

It  was  a  kind,  sweet,  gentle  woman,  Elizabeth  Herrick, 
an  English  Quakeress,  who  formulated  the  Abolitionist 
platform,  "Unconditional  and  immediate  abolition." 

Meantime,  the  Abolitionist  organization,  with  Wendell 
Phillips  at  its  head,  was  helping  finance  the  anti-slavery 
immigrants  who  were  pouring  into  Kansas,  and  advising 
them  to  meet  force  with  force.  Phillips  was  no  mere 
gabbler;  he  risked  his  life  in  the  streets  of  Boston  against 
armed  officers  of  the  law,  both  State  and  National.  And 
he  was  a  lawyer.  Consider  the  uses  he  had  made  of  the 
Prigg  case. 

If  the  truth  could  be  known,  it  was  the  Abolitionists 


THE    LINCOLN-DOUGLAS    DEBATES  95 

who  "staked  John  Brown  in  the  Harpers  Ferry  raid." 
Phillips  applauded  it.  He  went  to  Europe  and  told  the 
French,  English,  and  Irish  Abolitionists  that  for  the  first 
time  in  his  life  he  was  proud  to  be  an  American.  I  remem- 
ber the  John  Brown  raid  as  if  it  had  occurred  but  yesterday. 
From  it  Walter  Q.  Gresham  turned  in  horror. 

And  some  of  my  historian  critics  will  urge  that  the 
Thirteenth  and  Fourteenth  Amendments  had  had  nothing 
to  do  with  slavery  in  the  territories.  They  grew  out  of  it. 
And  when  it  is  considered  that  after  the  surrender,  with  the 
South  prostrate,  it  took  these  two  Amendments  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  "reverse"  the  Dred 
Scott  case,  it  must  be  conceded  there  was  some  ground 
for  it. 

One  night  at  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  John  G.  Carlisle's 
residence,  during  the  last  Cleveland  administration,  there 
was  a  discussion  of  New  England  men  and  measures.  Mrs. 
Carlisle  said :  ' '  Judge,  you  are  harder  on  the  Yankees  than 
we  are!"  My  husband  had  just  said:  "I  can  appreciate 
the  relief  it  was  to  many  of  the  New  England  statesmen 
when  Wendell  Phillips  died,  for  E.  R.  Hoar  said  they  all 
approved  that  last  act  of  Phillips'." 

The  conversation  turned  to  Charles  Sumner.  My 
husband  remarked:  "General  Grant  never  liked  Sumner. 
Whatever  you  people  may  think  of  General  Grant,  he  was 
sincere,  though  sometimes  mistaken."  It  was  said  in 
General  Grant's  presence,  "Charles  Sumner  does  not  be- 
lieve in  the  Bible."  "No,"  replied  the  General,  "he  did 
not  write  it." 

In  the  first  of  the  Lincoln- Douglas  debates,  Senator 
Douglas  charged  Mr.  Lincoln  with  being  an  Abolitionist 
and  a  Revolutionist,  and  proved  it,  as  the  pro-slavery  man 
thought,  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  "House  Divided  against  Itself" 
speech.  For  Southern  consumption, — to  separate  Senator 
Douglas  from  his  Southern  friends,  for  that  was  Lincoln's 
asserted  purpose — he  demonstrated  in  the  Alton  debate 


96       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

that  Senator  Douglas  was  the  best  Abolitionist  of  them  all.1 
Wrongly  decided,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  he  would  not  obey 
the  Dred  Scott  decision.  But  if  correctly  decided,  he  said 
there  was  no  escape  from  its  conclusion  that  it  carried 
slavery  into  the  territories,  and  that  all  the  power  of 
the  National  government  should  be  exerted  to  protect  the 
slaveholder  in  his  slave  property  instead  of  leaving  to 
the  territorial  legislature'  the  measure  of  protection,  if 
any,  the  slaveholder  should  receive  after  he  reached  the 
territory. 

George  D.  Prentice,  in  the  Louisville  Journal,  seized  on 

lln  the  Freeport  speech,  Senator  Douglas  said: 

"The  next  question  propounded  to  me  by  Mr.  Lincoln  is:  'Can  the  people  of  a  territory 
in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wishes  of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from 
their  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution? '  I  answer  emphatically,  as  Mr 
Lincoln  has  heard  me  answer  a  hundred  times  from  every  stump  in  Illinois,  that  in  my  opinion 
the  people  of  a  territory  can,  by  lawful  means,  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits  prior  to  the 
formation  of  a  State  Constitution.  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  I  had  answered  that  question  over 
and  over  again.  He  heard  me  argue  the  Nebraska  Bill  on  that  principle  all  over  the  State  in 
1854,  in  1855,  and  in  1856,  and  he  has  no  excuse  for  pretending  to  be  in  doubt  as  to  my  position 
on  that  question.  It  matters  not  what  way  the  Supreme  Court  may  hereafter  decide  as  to 
the  abstract  question  'whether  slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  territory  under  the  Consti- 
tution,'—  the  people  have  the  lawful  means  to  introduce  it  or  exclude  it  as  they  please,  for  the 
reason  that  slavery  cannot  exist  a  day  or  an  hour  anywhere  unless  supported  by  police  regu- 
lations. These  police  regulations  can  only  be  established  by  the  local  legislature;  and  if  the 
people  are  opposed  to  slavery,  they  will  elect  representatives  to  that  body  who  will,  by  un- 
friendly legislation,  effectually  prevent  the  introduction  of  it  into  their  midst.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  are  for  it,  their  legislation  will  favor  its  extension.  Hence,  no  matter  what  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  may  be  on  the  abstract  question,  still  the  right  of  the  people  to 
make  Slave  Territory  or  a  Free  Territory  is  perfect  and  complete  under  the  Nebraska  Bill." 

In  the  Alton  debate,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 
"And  if  I  believe  that  the  right  to  hold  a  slave  in  a  territory  was  equally  fixed  in  the  Con- 
stitution with  the  right  to  reclaim  fugitives,  I  should  be  bound  to  give  it  the  legislation  neces- 
sary to  support  it.  I  say  that  no  man  can  deny  his  obligation  to  give  the  necessary  legislation 
to  support  slavery  in  a  territory,  who  believes  it  is  a  constitutional  right  to  have  it  there  .  .  . 
I  say  if  that  Dred  Scott  decision  is  correct,  then  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  a  territory  is  equally 
a  constitutional  right  with  the  right  of  a  slaveholder  to  have  his  runaway  returned.  No  one 
can  show  the  distinction  between  them;  the  one  is  expressed  so  that  we  cannot  deny  it;  the 
other  is  construed  to  be  in  the  Constitution,  so  that  he  who  believes  the  decision  to  be  correct, 
believes  in  the  right;  and  the  man  who  argues  that  by  unfriendly  legislation,  in  spite  of  that 
constitutional  right,  slavery  may  be  driven  from  the  territories,  cannot  avoid  furnishing  an 
argument  by  which  Abolitionists  may  deny  the  obligation  to  return  fugitives,  and  claim  the 
power  to  pass  laws  unfriendly  to  the  right  of  the  slaveholder  to  reclaim  his  fugitives.  I  do 
not  know  how  much  an  argument  may  strike  a  popular  assembly  like  this,  but  I  defy  anybody 
to  go  before  a  body  of  men  whose  minds  are  educated  to  estimate  evidence  and  reasoning,  and 
show  that  there  is  an  iota  of  difference  between  the  Constitutional  right  to  reclaim  a  fugitive 
and  the  Constitutional  right  to  hold  a  slave  in  a  territory,  provided  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
is  correct.  I  defy  any  man  to  make  an  argument  that  will  justify  unfriendly  legislation  to 
deprive  a  slaveholder  of  his  right  to  hold  his  slave  in  a  territory,  that  will  not  immediately, 
in  all  its  length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  furnish  an  argument  for  nullifying  the  fugitive  slave 
law.     Why,  there  is  not  such  an  Abolitionist  in  the  nation  as  Douglas  after  all!" 


THE    LINCOLN-DOUGLAS    DEBATES  97 

Mr.  Lincoln's  proposition  that  if  the  Dred  Scott  case  was 
right,  and  "Squatter  Sovereignty,"  or  home  rule  in  the 
territories,  all  wrong,  to  argue  with  the  greatest  force  and 
the  fiercest  denunciation  of  all  who  questioned  his  conclu- 
sions, that  every  power  of  Congress  and  the  executive  should 
be  exerted  to  protect  the  slaveholder  who  took  his  slaves  to 
a  territory.  He  separated  John  C.  Breckenridge,  then  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  from  the  doctrine  of  Squat- 
ter sovereignty,  and  from  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Prentice's 
views  went  like  a  shot  to  the  Gulf.1  Many  a  time  since 
the  war  have  I  heard"  the  Southern  women  complain  that 
''our  worst  Secessionists  were  Yankees."  Not  only  that, 
but  I  can  say  that  the  hardest  masters  among  the  slave 
owners  were  New  England  men  who  settled  in  the  South. 
Here  I  am  simply  reciting  facts. 

I  know  how  the  agitation  affected  my  father.  He  was 
not  a  bitter  pro-slavery  man  in  the  beginning,  as  I  have 
shown.  Indeed,  he  wanted  to  get  away  from  slavery.  But 
the  fury  and  assaults  of  the  Abolitionists  made  him,  as  well 
as  others,  frantic.  And  with  his  keen  Irish  mind,  he  was 
alive  to  every  phase  of  the  question. 

As  I  have  before  stated,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  not  an 
Abolitionist.  That  innate  consideration  for  others,  more 
even  •  than  his  education  and  environment,  led  him  to  a 
different  course,  and  he  was  most  considerate  of  my  views 
and  those  of  my  father.  He  was  then  considerate  in  private, 
as  well  as  in  public,  of  what  he  said  about  the  men  and 
institutions  of  the  South,  irritated  as  he  was  at  times  at 
Southern  arrogance.  He  did  not  then  assail  the  Supreme 
Court.  But  he  could  and  he  did  press  the  immorality  of  slav- 
ery in  a  way  that  did  not  make  the  pro-slavery  men  wild. 

To  use  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  expressions  in  the 
Lincoln-Douglas  debate,  ' '  The  winnings  were  not  all  on  one 
side."  Under  the  pressure  of  Senator  Douglas's  assaults, 
Mr.  Lincoln  retreated  farther  than  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was 

iSee  page  73. 


98        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

willing  to  go  even  to  save  the  Union.  After  Mr.  Lincoln 
got  the  advice  of  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias,  with  the 
balance  of  Europe  with  England  in  the  lead  against  him, 
as  to  the  supreme  importance  of  preserving  the  Union,  he 
announced  his  willingness  to  make  any  concession  to  the 
pro-slavery  people — that  his  sole  purpose  was  to  save 
the  Union,  and  that  too  with  or  without  slavery.  This 
was  not  exactly  consistent  with  his  riding  into  power  on  his 
avowed  determination  ultimately  to  abolish  slavery  because 
it  was  immoral,  and  his  criticism  of  Douglas  for  stabbing 
the  institution  in  the  back  by  saying;  "I  care  not  whether 
slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down.  I  will  leave  it  to  the 
people."  Possibly,  had  Douglas  lived,  his  great  devotion 
to  the  Union  might  have  induced  him  to  assent  to  the  con- 
cessions Mr.  Lincoln  was  willing  to  grant,  but  down  to  the 
last  Douglas  was  insistent,  the  election  of  i860  being  inter- 
preted as  a  "voting  down,"  that  it  should  be  a  finish  fight. 
I  know  whereof  I  speak.  Never  was  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
willing  that  should  be  done  which  Mr.  Lincoln  announced 
in  his  first  inaugural  address  might  be  made  "express  and 
irrevocable"  in  the  Constitution,  because  he  said  there  was 
implied  the  right  to  own  and  hold  a  slave.  Fair,  open,  and, 
as  near  as  it  can  be,  honorable  war,  not  the  John  Brown 
kind,  was  what  the  pro-slavery  men  could  have  if  they 
wanted  more  than  the  fathers  had  granted.  Having  shed 
his  blood  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  and  incidentally 
for  abolition  of  slavery,  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  according  to 
many  who  were  at  a  safe  distance  in  the  rear,  was  not  a 
good  Republican  for  desiring  to  welcome  back  to  our  body 
politic  the  brave  men  he  had  met  on  the  battlefield,  and 
intrusting  to  them,  rather  than  to  the  inexperienced 
and  half-civilized  "Africans,"  the  control  of  their  local 
affairs.1 

At  Galesburg,  in  northern  Illinois,  Senator  Douglas  sep- 
arated the  Abolitionists  from  Mr.  Lincoln  by  telling  them 

iSee  pages  460  and  471. 


THE    LINCOLN-DOUGLAS    DEBATES  99 

that  when  he  had  him,  Lincoln,  down  at  Charleston,  in 
southern  Illinois,  among  the  ex- Whigs  and  pro-slavery  men 
from  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  he  had  forced  him  to  commit 
himself  as  to  just  where  he  stood  on  the  subject  of  the 
black  man.     Mr.  Lincoln  could  not  deny  his  own  words: 

I  will  say,  then,  that  I  am  not  now  nor  ever  have  been  in  favor 
of  bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  political  equality  of 
the  white  and  black  races ;  that  I  am  not  now  nor  ever  have  been 
in  favor  of  making  voters  of  negroes,  or  jurors,  nor  of  qualify- 
ing them  to  hold  office,  nor  to  intermarry  with  white  people. 
I  will  say  in  addition  to  this,  that  there  is  a  physical  difference 
between  the  white  and  black  races,  which,  I  believe,  will  for- 
ever forbid  the  two  races  living  together  upon  terms  of  social  and 
political  equality ;  and  inasmuch  as  they  cannot  so  live,  that  while 
they  do  remain  together,  there  must  be  the  position  of  superior 
and  inferior,  and  that  I,  as  much  as  any  other  man,  am  in  favor 
of  the  superior  position  being  assigned  to  the  white  man.1 

These  are  the  words  that,  since  reconstruction  days, 
have  been  quoted  by  Southern  men,  with  the  acquiescence 
of  the  nation,  in  justification  of  the  suppression  of  the  negro 
vote  in  the  South.  At  the  time  these  words  were  uttered 
there  was  not  a  State  in  the  Union  that  did  not  discriminate 
in  its  constitution  and  laws  against  the  freedmen.  Promptly 
asserting,  in  the  remaining  debates  in  northern  Illinois,  that 
the  freedmen  should  be  treated  as  human  beings  and  ac- 
corded all  the  rights  —  among  which  he  failed  to  mention  the 

iThat  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  how  to  make  concessions  and  still  keep  the  edge  of  the  sword 
against  his  opponent,  the  following  language  of  the  next  paragraph  of  the  Charleston  speech 
attests:  "I  do  not  understand  that  because  I  do  not  want  a  negro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  must 
necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  .  .  .  So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for  us  to  get  along 
without  making  either  slaves  or  wives  of  negroes.  I  will  add  to  this,  I  have  never  seen,  to  my 
knowledge,  a  man,  woman,  or  child,  who  was  in  favor  of  producing  a  perfect  equality,  social 
and  political,  between  negroes  and  white  men." 

In  his  rejoinder  in  the  Charleston  debate  Mr.  Lincoln  begins:  "Judge  Douglas  has 
said  to  you  that  he  has  not  been  able  to  get  from  me  an  answer  to  the  question  whether  I  am 
in  favor  of  negro  citizenship.  So  far  as  I  know,  the  Judge  never  asked  me  the  question  before. 
He  shall  have  no  occasion  to  ever  ask  it  again,  for  I  tell  him  very  frankly  that  I  am  not  in  favor 
of  negro  citizenship.  .  .  .  Now,  my  opinion  is  that  the  different  States  have  the  power  to 
make  a  negro  a  citizen,  under  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  if  they  choose.  The  Dred 
Scott  decision  decides  that  they  have  not  that  power.  If  the  State  of  Illinois  had  that  power, 
I  should  be  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  it." 


loo       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

ballot,  and  he  never  was  for  enfranchisement  en  masse  — 
essential  to  the  protection  and  enjoyment  of  their  life,  lib- 
erty, and  property,  Lincoln  not  only  lost  Abolitionist  votes 
in  northern  Illinois  in  1858,  but  the  impression  his  ''House 
Divided  against  Itself"  speech  produced  on  the  pro-slavery 
men  was  not  effaced  for  a  long  time. 

We  understood  the  Dred  Scott  case,  for,  as  I  have 
said,  while  Winnie,  our  cook,  was  free  in  Indiana,  when 
she  returned  with  us  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  as  she  did 
at  certain  intervals,  her  status  as  a  slave  was  resumed,  as 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  held  in  the  Megs 
case.  "Old  Winn"  preferred  Kentucky  to  living  under  the 
reactionary  Indiana  constitution.1  The  Illinois  Black  Laws 
were  still  on  the  statute  books.  And  there  was  the  Bran- 
denburg case.2 

To  the  last  "Old  Winn"  was  my  friend.  "I  will  never 
leave  until  I  cook  your  wedding  breakfast."  And  a  most 
bounteous  one  it  was.  She  was  the  last  to  shower  on  me  her 
blessings.     "Good-bye,  Mammy,"  I  said  as  I  embraced  her. 

As  we  made  the  twenty-mile  drive  from  Corydon  to 
New  Albany  that  crisp  February  morning,  my  young  hus- 
band said  his  confidence  increased  that  the  promptings  of 
the  human  heart  would  settle  the  slavery  question. 

Every  Southern  court  that  passed  on  it,  after  the  rati- 
fication of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  held  that 
the  voluntary  taking  of  a  slave  to  free  territory  manu- 
mitted that  slave  even  in  the  slave  territory  from  whence 
the  slave  had  been  taken.  Louisiana,  Kentucky,  Missis- 
sippi, and  Missouri  so  held.  To  quote  the  language  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Louisiana  (in  Marie  Louise  vs.  Moret, 
o  La.  Rep.  475)  in  1835:  "The  benign  and  liberal  effect  of 
the  laws  of  France  is  such,  that  Marie  Louise  being  free  there 

iMay  2,  i860,  Albert  G.  Porter,  then  a  Republican  representative  in  Congress,  and  later 
governor  of  Indiana,  said,  "It  is  not  probable,  Sir,  with  the  prejudices  of  my  early  education, 
that  I  would  be  likely  to  have  too  great  sympathy  for  negroes.  In  Indiana  we  have  adopted 
ajconstitutional  provision  that  no  negro,  whether  he  be  bound  or  free,  shall  be  allowed  to  come 
within  its  limits." 

2  See  page  78. 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES     101 

one  minute,  it  was  not  within  the  power  of  her  former 
master  to  reduce  her  again    to  slavery  in    Louisiana." 

In  1820,  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Kentucky,  in  the  case 
of  Rankin  vs.  Lydia,1  where  it  was  claimed  Lydia  was  free, 
and  it  was  so  held,  because  her  master  had  taken  her  to 
the  territory  of  Indiana,  while  not  going  as  far  as  the  Louis- 
iana court,  declared  as  follows:  "And  is  it  to  be  seriously 
contended  that  as  soon  as  he  transported  her  to  the  Ken- 
tucky shore,  the  noxious  atmosphere  of  this  State,  without 
any  express  law  for  the  purpose,  clamped  upon  her  newly 
forged  chains  of  slavery,  after  the  old  ones  were  destroyed? 
For  the  honor  of  our  country,  we  cannot  for  a  moment 
admit  that  the  bare  treading  of  our  soil  is  thus  dangerous 
to  the  degraded  African." 

In  1827,  in  the  celebrated  Grace  case,  on  appeal  from 
the  Vice  Admiralty  Court  of  Antigua,  one  of  the  British 
West  Indies,  Lord  Stowell  of  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty, 
in  a  long  but  not  logical  or  well-considered  opinion, 
criticized,  if  he  did  not  overrule,  Lord  Mansfield's  opinion 
in  the  Sommerset  case.  In  1822,  a  Mrs.  Allen,  a  British 
subject,  residing  in  Antigua,  went  to  England  on  a  visit. 
She  took  with  her  as  her  maid  one  of  her  husband's  slaves, 
named  Grace.  After  a  year's  visit  Grace  returned  volun- 
tarily with  Mrs.  Allen  to  Antigua.  August  8,  1825,  at  the 
instance  of  one  of  the  West  India  custom  officers  —  Wykes  — 
an  action  was  brought  in  the  Admiralty  Court  of  Antigua 
to  test  the  question  of  Grace's  manumission  because  she 
had  been  in  England.  At  that  time  a  slave  was  so  far  a 
chattel  or  an  animal  that  he  or  she  could  not  maintain 
a  suit  in  his  or  her  own  name  in  the  West  India  colonial 
courts.  The  Antigua  court  held  that  although  free  in 
England,  Grace's  status  as  a  slave  was  resumed  when  she 
returned  to  Antigua,  and  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty 
affirmed  that  decree. 

Still,   the    Grace  case   did    not    "feaze"    the   Southern 

1  A.  K    Marshall  467. 


102        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

courts,  and  not  until  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts, 
in  1837  in  the  Megs  case,1  in  an  opinion  by  the  venerable 
Lemuel  C.  Shaw,  decided,  in  the  face  of  the  Louisiana  deci- 
sion we  have  just  quoted,  that  a  Louisiana  slave  owner  could 
bring  his  slave  to  Massachusetts  for  a  temporary  purpose 
and  not  thereby  manumit  that  slave,  and  Justice  Story's 
unqualified  endorsement  of  Lord  Stowell's  opinion  in  the 
Grace  case,  did  the  Southern  courts  abandon  their  humane 
and  generous  sentiments.  Senator  George  F.  Hoar  in  his 
memoirs  places  Justice  Shaw  at  the  head  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts judiciary,  and  that  seems  to  be  the  place  accorded 
him  by  the  bar  of  the  nation.  But  neither  as  a  law  student 
nor  as  a  judge  did  Walter  Q.  Gresham  ever  look  on  Justice 
Story,  Justice  Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  or  Chief  Justice  Shaw, 
as  great  jurists  or  statesmen,  as  Senator  Hoar  classes  Chief 
Justice  Shaw.  The  judgment  of  Chief  Justice  Shaw  in  the 
Megs  case,  and  Justice  Story's  endorsement  of  the  Grace 
case,  really  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
The  lawyer  for  the  slave  owner  in  the  Megs  case  was  Ben- 
jamin R.  Curtis.  It  was  the  argument  of  Benjamin  R. 
Curtis,  that  slavery  was  not  immoral,  that  the  Grace  case 
had  overruled  the  Sommerset  case,2  "that  a  citizen  of 
Louisiana  has  a  very  different  standing  in  our  courts  at 
this  day  from  the  standing  of  a  Virginian  in  the  Court  of 
the  King's  Bench  in  1772  just  before  the  breaking  out  of 
the  Revolutionary  War,"  together  with  Justice  Story's 
unqualified  endorsement  of  the  Grace  case,  that  made 
the  Megs  case. 

In  1850,3  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  — 
Justice  Story  still  a  member — affirmed  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals of  Kentucky  in  1845,4  in  overruling  the  decision  in  the 
Lydia  case  and  adopting  the  Megs  case  as  a  rule  of  property 
in  Kentucky.     The  Mississippi  court  reversed  itself.     But 

1  Ames  vs.  Commonwealth  19  Pick  197. 

2  See  Chapter  II,  page  36. 
3Strader  vs.  Graham  10  Howard  82. 
^Strader  vs.  Graham  5  B.  Monroe  173. 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES     103 

in  Louisiana  it  took  an  act  of  the  legislature  to  adopt  the 
Megs  case  as  a  rule  of  property. 

A  square  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  upholding  the  Megs  case  would  operate  in  the  North 
as  the  Megs  case  had  in  New  England.  The  Megs  case  had 
not  only  utterly  confounded  the  conscience  Whigs  and  the 
Free  Soilers,  but  it  had  enabled  Wendell  Phillips  to  whip 
New  England  into  a  frenzy  against  "the  Fugitive  Slave 
bill  lawyers  and  judges." 

There  is  much  to  support  the  view  asserted  at  the  time, 
that  it  was  the  Abolitionists  who  conducted  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  the  litigation  about  the  negro  Dred 
Scott,  especially  after  it  got  to  the  Federal  courts.  The 
final  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
declaring  Dred  Scott  to  be  Dr.  F.  A.  Sanford's  slave,  was 
entered  March  7,  1857.  A  few  days  later,  Dr.  Sanford 
executed  and  put  on  record  a  deed  setting  Scott  free. 

"Boston  has  become  a  suburb  of  Alexandria,  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line  has  been  shoved  up  to  the  Canadian 
border,  and  the  time  will  come  when  the  slave  trader  will 
exhibit  his  marts  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument," 
said  Phillips.  Of  course  he  did  not  believe  it,  but  as  a 
lawyer  he  knew  how  to  argue  his  case  and  incidentally 
"lay  on  the  lash." 

According  to  some  accounts,  Dred  Scott  was  born  a 
slave  in  Louisiana  Territory  before  the  purchase.  By  the 
treaty  with  Napoleon,  the  rights  of  the  citizens  of  Louisiana 
to  their  property,  which  included  slaves,  were  to  be  recog- 
nized and  protected  by  the  United  States.  Another  account 
has  it,  he  was  brought  to  Missouri  by  his  Virginia  master. 
His  owner,  Dr.  Emerson,  a  surgeon  of  the  United  States 
Army,  removed  him  from  Missouri  to  the  United  States 
military  post  at  Rock  Island,  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and 
thence  to  the  military  post  at  Fort  Snelling,  now  in  the 
State  of  Minnesota,  then  a  part  of  Upper  Louisiana,  and 
north  of  latitude  3 6°  30'.     Section  8  of  the  Act  of  Congress 


104       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  1820,  known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise,  prohibited 
slavery  north  of  the  line  3  6°  30'.  At  Fort  Snelling,  Dred 
Scott  was  permitted  to  marry  Eliza,  the  slave  of  Major 
Talifero,  and,  to  keep  them  together,  Dr.  Emerson  pur- 
chased Eliza.  Of  this  marriage  two  children  were  born, — 
Eliza,  on  board  the  steamboat  Gipsy  in  the  Mississippi 
River  north  of  the  Missouri  line,  and  Lizzie,  in  the  State 
of  Missouri  at  the  military  post  called  Jefferson  Barracks, 
where  Dr.  Emerson  returned  in  1838,  bringing  with  him 
Dred  Scott  and  the  two  Elizas. 

Dr.  Emerson  died  in  Davenport,  Iowa,  in  1844,  leaving 
his  property  in  trust  to  his  wife  for  his  daughter,  and  naming 
Mrs.  Emerson's  brother  Dr.  F.  A.  Sanford,  as  executor. 
The  will  was  probated  in  Iowa.  Sanford  refused  to  qualify 
as  executor,  and  Mrs.  Emerson  was  appointed  adminis- 
tratrix. 

In  1846  Mrs.  Emerson  returned  to  St.  Louis.  Mean- 
time, Dred  Scott  had  continued  in  St.  Louis  practically 
free,  but  it  was  said  he  was  lazy  and  good  for  nothing,  and 
would  not  work.  Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  was  a  Free  Soiler,  then 
practicing  law  in  St.  Louis,  and  his  brother,  Montgomery 
Blair,  was  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Common  Pleas  Court  of 
St.  Louis  County. 

In  December,  1846,  Dred  Scott  and  his  wife  began  an 
action  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  St.  Louis  County  against 
Irene  Emerson,  administratrix.  His  claim  to  freedom  was 
based  on  Section  8  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  on  the 
early  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Missouri,  namely, 
that  the  taking*  by  a  master  of  his  slave  to  free  territory 
manumitted  the  slave,  even  though  the  slave  voluntarily 
returned  with  the  master  to  Missouri.  Accordingly,  the 
jury  at  the  April,  1849,  term,  was  instructed  by  the  trial 
court  to  find  for  Scott.  This  they  did,  but  the  verdict 
was  set  aside  and  a  new  trial  granted.  On  the  second  trial 
in  January,  1850,  before  another  judge,  under  peremptory 
instructions   from   the   court,    the   jury   returned    another 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES     105 

verdict  for  Scott.  This  time  judgment  was  entered  on  the 
verdict.  On  appeal,  the  Supreme  Court  of  Missouri  at  the 
March  term,  1852  (15  Mo.  516),  reversed  itself;  that  is, 
took  back  its  early  decision,  followed  the  Massachusetts 
case  and  the  late  Kentucky  case,  and  instructed  the  Circuit 
Court  of  St.  Louis  County  to  do  what  it  promptly  did  — 
find  Dred  Scott  was  still  a  slave. 

Under  normal  conditions,  after  the  judgment  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Missouri  the  litigation  would  have  ended. 
In  the  Fall  of  1850,  Mrs.  Emerson  married  Dr.  Calvin  C. 
Chaffee,  a  physician  of  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  an 
Abolitionist,  and  soon  after  a  member  of  Congress  from 
the  Springfield  district.  After  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Missouri,  Mrs.  Chaffee  sold  Scott,  his  wife,  and 
children  to  her  brother  Dr.  F.  A.  Sanford,  who  had  re- 
fused to  qualify  as  executor  of  Dr.  Emerson's  estate,  and 
who  was  then  a  citizen  of  New  York. 

In  1853,  Scott,  claiming  to  be  a  free  man,  brought  his 
action  of  trespass  against  Sanford  in  the  Circuit  Court  of 
the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Missouri.  The  juris- 
diction was  predicated  on  the  diverse  citizenship,  Scott  of 
Missouri  and  Sanford  of  New  York.  Sanford  pleaded  that 
"Dred  Scott  is  not  a  citizen  of  Missouri  because  he  is  a 
negro  of  African  descent,  whose  ancestors  were  brought 
into  this  country  and  sold  as  slaves,  and  thus  he  cannot  sue 
in  the  United  States  courts."  That  it  was  a  made-up  case 
is  almost  conclusive  from  the  agreed  statement  of  the  case 
embodied  in  a  written  stipulation  which  was  filed  for  the 
consideration  of  the  court  and  jury.  There  was  no  need 
of  a  jury.  All  depended  on  the  conclusions  the  court  would 
draw  from  the  agreed  facts.  After  setting  forth  the  facts 
as  we  have  stated  them,  there  was  this  stipulation,  which 
as  a  matter  of  fact  was  not  true, .  namely,  that  it  was  Dr. 
Emerson  and  not  his  widow,  Irene  Emerson  Chaffee,  who 
sold  Scott,  his  wife,  and  children  to  Sanford.  Under  Dr. 
Emerson's  will  there  was  a  question  whether  the  widow, 


106       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Mrs.  Chaffee,  had  the  power  to  sell.  The  failure  of  some 
one  to  bring  that  question  to  the  attention  of  the  lower  or 
upper  Federal  courts  is  conclusive  that  the  same  man  or 
interest  was  running  both  sides  of  the  lawsuit.  There  was 
a  directed  verdict  and  judgment  for  the  defendant,  and  a 
writ  of  error  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  case  was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  by  Mont- 
gomery Blair,  then  off  of  the  Missouri  bench,  and  George 
T.  Curtis,  for  Scott,  while  Reverdy  Johnson  of  Maryland 
and  Senator  Guyer  of  Missouri  appeared  for  Sanford.  I 
afterwards  knew  Reverdy  Johnson  well.  George  T.  Curtis 
was  a  brother  of  Justice  Curtis,  and  this  relationship  should 
have  kept  him  out  of  the  case.  If  the  Abolitionists  hired 
Mr.  Curtis — and  it  must  have  been  they,  for  Dred  Scott 
was  without  means  to  do  so — it  was  a  mean  trick  to 
embarrass  his  brother  on  the  bench. 

The  court  decided  first,  that  a  person  of  African  descent 
whose  parents  had  been  brought  into  the  United  States 
and  sold  as  slaves,  could  not  be  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  and  could  not  sue  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States. 
Dissenting  from  this  proposition,  Justice  Curtis  said  that, 
having  decided  it,  there  the  courts  should  have  stopped. 
Possibly  they  could  have  stopped  at  this  point,  and  well, 
perhaps,  it  would  have  been  had  they  done  so  and  said  to 
Congress  and  the  people,  "It  is  a  political,  not  a  judicial, 
question."  But  Congress,  in  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
although  Senator  John  Bell  of  Tennessee  had  protested  no 
court  was  strong  enough  to  settle  the  controversy,  had  put 
the  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories  up  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  John  Marshall  had  set  the  precedent  of  decid- 
ing every  question  presented  in  a  lawsuit  on  the  record  or 
orally  on  the  argument.  The  last  question  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  decided  was  that  he  did  not  have  jurisdiction. 
It  was  thus  in  Marbury  vs.  Madison,  "The  first  milestone 
of  the  Constitution,"  in  which  a  great  constitutional  ques- 
tion was  decided.    It  was  then  that  Thomas  Jefferson  became 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES     107 

so  enraged  at  the  judicial  power.  After  deciding  that 
Jefferson  as  President  had  no  right  to  withhold  commis^ 
sions  President  Adams  had  signed  after  his  appointments 
had  been  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  Chief  Justice  Marshall 
decided  the  court  was  without  jurisdiction,  because,  he 
said,  the  case,  which  was  a  petition  for  a  mandamus  com- 
manding Secretary  of  State  James  Madison  to  deliver  the 
commissions,  should  have  been  filed  in  a  lower  court  and 
brought  to  the  Supreme  Court  by  appeal  instead  of  being 
filed  in  the  first  instance  in  the  ofhce  of  the  clerk  of  the  Su- 
preme Court.  When  it  came  to  questions  of  Federal  power, 
Taney  never  repudiated  anything  that  Marshall  said  or  did. 

On  one  proposition,  Associate  Justice  Curtis  concurred 
with  the  Chief  Justice,  namely,  that  a  slave  at  that  time 
could  neither  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  nor  sue  in 
the  courts  of  the  United  States.  Then  as  the  majority 
pointed  out,  it  had  not  been  in  the  power  of  the  Romans 
by  manumission  to  elevate  the  former  slave,  no  matter 
what  the  color  of  his  skin,  to  citizenship  in  the  republic. 
The  creation  of  a  citizen  was  a  political  and  not  a  judicial 
power.  Over  Justice  Curtis's  dissent,  the  court  held  that 
breathing  the  free  air,  first  of  Illinois  and  then  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Minnesota,  did  not  make  Dred  Scott  a  free  man 
when  he  voluntarily  returned  with  his  owner  to  Missouri. 
Section  8  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  prohibiting  slavery 
in  the  territory  north  of  the  line  3 6°  30',  was  unconstitu- 
tional because  it  violated  the  treaty  of  the  Louisiana  pur- 
chase and  because  the  Fifth  Amendment  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  protected  the  owner  in  his  property; 
and  as  the  Constitution  recognized  a  slave  as  property,  it 
was  beyond  the  power  of  Congress  to  put  a  limitation  on 
the  right  of  the  owner  to  take  a  slave  to  a  territory  of  the 
United  States. 

Emphasizing  this  right  of  the  owner  to  take  his  slave 
as  any  other  property  to  a  territory,  but  suggesting  no 
power  or   means   the   government  of    the    United    States 


108       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

possessed  of  protecting  and  preserving  that  property  after 
the  territory  was  reached,  the  decision  gave  color  to  Senator 
Douglas's  claim  of  Squatter  or  Popular  Sovereignty  or  home 
rule,  by  holding  that  while  the  United  States  could  acquire 
territory,  it  expressly  held  such  territory  could  only  be  ac- 
quired with  the  object  in  view  of  making  that  territory  into 
States,  holding  it  in  the  meantime  not  as  Great  Britain 
had  held  her  American  colonies,  but  in  a  way  that  would 
qualify  them  to  become  States.  It  was  the  British  crown 
that  in  the  first  instance  forced  slavery  on  the  colonists. 

Much  of  the  opinion  might  be  exchanged  for  Wendell 
Phillips'  argument  in  support  of  his  proposition  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  a  pro-slavery  in- 
strument. Amendment,  as  provided  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  Chief  Justice  Taney  suggested,  was 
the  remedy  for  these  harsh  and  unjust  rules  embodied  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  that,  as  Phillips  said, 
grew  out  of  "the  belief  that  existed  at  the  time  the  Con- 
stitution was  adopted  that  the  African  was  a  mere  chattel, 
so  recognized  by  the  laws  of  the  nation,  to  be  bought  and 
sold,  and  had  no  rights  the  white  man  was  bound  to  re- 
spect."1 

Not  only  did  the  Chief  Justice  and  several  of  his  con- 
curring brethren  thus  rub  it  into  New  England  for  her 
inconsistency,  but  there  is  also  in  the  Chief  Justice's  opin- 
ion that  trace  of  irony  that  the  philosopher  often  reveals 
for  the  mere  man  of  property. 

Following  his  long  dissenting  opinion,  after  a  bitter 
correspondence  with  Chief  Justice  Taney,  Justice  Curtis 
resigned  September  i,  1857.  For  Justice  Curtis  the  Aboli- 
tionists had  only  sneers,  never  a  word  of  censure  for  Taney. 

With  Mr.  Lincoln's  approval,  Congress  had  put  the 
question  of  slavery  in  the  territories  up  to  the  court,  and 
while  the  court  did  the  best  it  could,  it  did  not  attempt 
to  make  a  complete  and  final  exposition  of  the  question. 

^Abolitionist  Hand  Book. 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES     109 

Had  Scott  remained  in  the  territory,  a  different  question 
would  have  been  presented. 

If  in  1858  Mr.  Lincoln,  instead  of  assailing  and,  as 
some  say,  inflicting  a  blow  on  the  court  from  which  it 
has  never  recovered,  had  taken  as  his  text,  "  Amend  these 
harsh  and  unjust  rules,"  condemned  as  they  are  by  the 
public  opinion  of  the  world — as  the  Dred  Scott  opinion 
all  but  avowed  —  and  by  all  the  early  Southern  jurists,  he 
would  have  occupied  a  position  of  vantage  from  which  to 
assail  the  immorality  of  the  institution,  a  position  that 
would  not  have  admitted  of  their  "going  out"  on  him,  or 
asserting  that  he  was  a  revolutionist  and  secessionist. 
"The  Illinois  Black  Laws"  and  the  reactionary  constitution 
of  Indiana  of  1850  tended  to  support  Mr.  Lincoln's  con- 
clusion, if  he  really  believed  it,  that  the  nation  was  to 
become  all  Slave.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  much  to 
support  his  suggestion  that  it  would  become  all  Free.  In 
his  younger  days,  when  at  the  bar,  Rodger  B.  Taney  had 
defended  the  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  Quakers  who 
operated  the  Underground  Railroad  between  those  States, 
and  denounced  slavery  most  bitterly.  But  if,  as  I  have 
heard  many  men  both  North  and  South  say,  slavery  had 
become  so  interwoven  in  the  web  and  woof  of  our  consti- 
tutional, social,  and  commercial  life  that  nothing  short  of 
war  could  end  it,  then  Mr.  Lincoln  must  be  accorded  the 
credit  for  uttering  the  words  that  made  the  conflict  of 
arms.  The  fight  over,  we  still,  as  I  have  said  before,  had 
to  amend;  or  as  Walter  Q.  Gresham  stated  it,  "The  war 
legislated."1  But  what  was  not  true  of  many  another  man, 
Mr.  Lincoln  grew  in  the  midst  of  the  strife.  Had  he  lived, 
I  believe,  as  is  now  generally  believed,  that  we  would  have 
escaped  many  of  the  mistakes  of  reconstruction.  In  that 
policy  he  would  have  had  a  firm  supporter  in  Walter  Q. 
Gresham. 

1  See  page  471. 

'       8 


CHAPTER  VII 
ELECTED   TO   INDIANA   LEGISLATURE 


GRESHAM  A  DELEGATE  TO  REPUBLICAN  STATE  CONVEN- 
TION  CONTEST  BETWEEN  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  POLITI- 
CIANS  DIVISION  OF  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY  —  CHARLESTON  CON- 
VENTION  DEBATE  BETWEEN  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  AND  STEPHEN 

A.    DOUGLAS NOMINATION     OF     DOUGLAS     AT     BALTIMORE 

NOMINATION     OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    AT    CHICAGO    CONVEN- 
TION  GRESHAM    REPUBLICAN    NOMINEE     FOR    LEGISLATURE 

DEFEATS    HANCOCK LINCOLN   ELECTED    AS    PRESIDENT. 

TN  i860  it  was  Kansas  and  Nebraska  again,  with  seces- 
■*■   sion  threatened  and  plainly  foreshadowed. 

This  year  my  husband  was  a  delegate  to  the  Indiana  Re- 
publican State  Convention  that  met  February  22,  and  nom- 
inated Henry  S.  Lane  for  Governor  as  a  representative  of  the 
old-line  Whigs,  and  Oliver  P.  Morton,  who  had  once  been 
a  Democrat,  for  lieutenant-governor,  under  an  agreement 
that,  in  the  event  of  success,  Lane  should  become  United 
States  senator  and  Morton  Governor.  While  the  contest 
was  on  for  first  place,  Mr.  Morton  claiming  it  as  of  right 
because  he  had  been  the  party  candidate  for  Governor  in 
1856,  my  husband  was  a  supporter  of  Mr.  Lane.  This 
convention  elected  my  husband's  friend,  Judge  William  T. 
Otto,  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention that  had  been  called  to  meet  in  Chicago.  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  favored  the  nomination  of  Salmon  P.  Chase. 
I  have  since  frequently  heard  Judge  Otto  tell  how  Caleb  B. 
Smith  imposed  on  Judge  David  Davis  and  Joseph  Medill 
when  the  latter  during  the  convention  was  pledging  every- 
thing in  sight  to  insure  Mr.  Lincoln's  nomination.  "Mr. 
Smith,"  Judge  Otto  said,  "made  Judge  Davis  believe  that 

no 


ELECTED  TO  INDIANA  LEGISLATURE   in 

the  Indiana  delegation  would  go  to  Seward  unless  Smith 
was  promised  a  place  in  the  cabinet;  when  the  truth  was 
that  none  of  us  cared  for  Smith,  and  after  we  got  to  Chicago 
and  looked  over  the  ground  all  were  for  Lincoln."  That 
the  pledge  was  made  I  have  heard  from  Judge  Davis's  own 
lips.  That  it  was  kept,  everybody  knows,  for  Caleb  B. 
Smith  became  the  first  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  cabinet.  When  the  time  came  for  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  to  make  pledges  as  to  membership  in  his  cabinet 
should  he  be  nominated  and  elected,  he  refused  to  do  so. 

My  father  and  the  Louisville  Courier,  the  Secessionist 
organ,  kept  constantly  before  us  the  question  of  secession 
and  what  the  pro-slavery  people  would  do  in  the  event  of 
the  election  of  Senator  Douglas  or  an  anti-slavery  man. 
My  father  also  brought  us  the  views  of  the  business  men 
of  Louisville,  whose  sympathies,  possibly  because  of  their 
trade  being  almost  entirely  with  the  South,  were  pro- 
slavery  and  Secessionist.  As  a  matter  of  local  pride,  the 
business  men  of  Louisville  favored  the  nomination  by  the 
Democrats  in  i860  of  one  of  their  number,  James  Guthrie, 
who  in  addition  to  his  other  public  services  had  been 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  President  Fillmore.  But 
he  was  a  Union  man  at  heart  and  had  only  the  nominal 
support  of  the  Courier. 

The  Harney s  were  still  for  Senator  Douglas.  George 
D.  Prentice,  apparently  without  a  candidate,  had  passed 
into  the  most  dangerous  of  the  two  classes  of  disunionists 
that  Henry  Clay,  in  1850,  said  threatened  our  country: 
One  is  that  which  is  open  and  undisguised  in  favor  of  sepa- 
ration. The  other  is  that  which,  disavowing  a  desire  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  adopts  a  cause  and  contends  for 
measures  and  principles  which  must  inevitably  lead  to  that 
calamitous  result." 

The  Democratic  party  divided  at  Charleston,  May  3, 
i860.  When  the  convention  met  April  23,  although  the 
Douglas  people  were  in  a  majority,  the  adjustment  of  the 


1/ 


112      LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

party  machinery  gave  the  pro-slavery  element  the  control 
of  the  Convention,  and  in  the  committee  on  resolutions  a 
majority  of  one.  The  differences  were  carried  to  the  floor 
of  the  Convention,  where  the  Douglas  people,  by  a  vote  of 
165  to  138,  substituted  theirs — or  the  minority  report  of 
the  Committee  on  Resolutions  —  for  that  of  the  majority, 
as  the  party  platform. 

The  pro-slavery  people  insisted  on  their  theory  that  as 
slaves  were  recognized  as  property  by  the  Federal  con- 
stitution, and  that  as  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  it  had  been 
held  a  slave  could  be  taken  to  a  territory,  therefore  the  leg- 
islative and  executive  branches  of  the  Federal  government 
should  protect  slavery  in  the  territories. 

But  the  Douglas  people  concluded  —  and  the  Dred 
Scott  case  did  not  preclude  the  inference,  for  Scott  had 
voluntarily  returned  with  his  master  from  Minnesota 
Territory  to  Missouri  —  that  in  organizing,  a  territory  as 
an  embryonic  State  and  vesting  it  with  legislative  power, 
the  legislature  in  representing  the  wishes  of  its  constituents 
was  absolute  and  supreme  in  the  control  of  the  police 
power.1  It  is  a  doctrine  supplemented  by  acts  of  Congress 
that  is  to-day  giving  the  Prohibitionists  bone-dry  territory. 
But  as  it  was  then  patent  that  without  the  aid  of  an  effi- 
cient police  force  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  the  actual 
enjoyment  of  slave  property  in  a  territory,  the  Douglas 
platform  ended  with  this  proviso,  that  inasmuch  as  differ- 
ences of  opinion  had  arisen  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of 
the  powers  and  duties  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
and  the  territorial  governments  under  the  Constitution, 
over  the  institution  of  slavery  within  the  territories,  they 
would  abide  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  on  these  questions. 

Immediately  upon  the  adoption  of  the  Douglas  plat- 
form, the  delegates  of  Alabama,  led  by  William  L.  Yancey 
— who  had  argued  on  the  floor  of  the  convention  that 
"Squatter  Sovereignty"  was  unconstitutional  —  all  left  the 

1  See  pages  21  and  22;  also  page  471.     The  war  did  not  destroy  the  States. 


ELECTED    TO    INDIANA     LEGISLATURE      113 

convention,  followed  by  the  delegates  from  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  South  Carolina,  Florida,  Texas,  and  Arkansas, 
to  be  followed  the  next  day  by  the  delegates  from  Georgia. 
President  Buchanan  and  his  officeholders  were  for  anything 
"to  beat"  Douglas.  There  went  with  the  seceders,  Senator 
James  A.  Bayard,  one  of  the  delegates  from  Delaware,  and 
William  L.  Whitney,  then  Collector  of  the  Port  of  Boston 
and  a  delegate  from  Massachusetts.  He  was  the  father  of 
William  C.  Whitney,  afterwards  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in 
Grover  Cleveland's  first  cabinet,  and  one  of  the  most  influ- 
ential men  in  the  second  Cleveland  administration,  although 
not  an  official  member  of  it,  and  an  influential  man  in  the 
Democratic  Convention  of  1896  at  Chicago.  The  elder 
Whitney's  experience  at  this  time  may  have  made  the  son 
conservative  or  timid.  In  1896,  William  C.  Whitney  as 
the  sound  money  leader  and  his  sound  money  followers 
sat  mute  instead  of  bolting,  as  they  subsequently  did  at  the 
nomination  of  William  Jennings  Bryan. 

The  seceders,  after  organizing  as  a  convention  and  lis- 
tening to  many  fiery  speeches,  adjourned,  without  adopt- 
ing a  platform  or  making  a  nomination,  to  meet  in  Rich- 
mond, Virginia,  in  June. 

Though  the  membership  was  thus  reduced,  still  Senator 
Douglas  could  not  be  nominated.  Some  of  the  seceders 
remained  and  insisted  that  the  two-thirds  rule  was  still  in 
force  and  that  it  meant  two- thirds  of  303,  the  original  roll 
of  the  Convention,  and  it  was  so  ordered  by  a  vote  of  141 
to  112,  and  then  there  was  an  adjournment,  June  18. 

June  2  the  Douglas  people  nominated  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las for  President  and  Hurschell  B.  Johnson  of  Georgia  for 
Vice-President.  Seven  days  later  the  seceders  nominated 
John  C.  Breckenridge  of  Kentucky  for  President  and  Joseph 
Law  of  Oregon  for  Vice-President.  In  the  interim  the 
Republican  and  Union  National  Conventions  met,  and 
there  was  a  great  debate  between  Jefferson  Davis  and 
Stephen  A.   Douglas  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 


U4     LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

March  i,  i860,  Senator  Jefferson  Davis,  with  a  view  to 
anticipating  the  action  of  the  Charleston  Convention,  had 
introduced  a  series  of  resolutions  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  setting  forth  the  pro-slavery  platform.  But  not 
until  May  8  did  he  begin  the  discussion,  in  a  speech  that 
ran  for  several  days,  with  interruptions.  He  attacked  Sen- 
ator Douglas  and  Squatter  Sovereignty  in  the  Charleston 
platform;  still  he  wanted  to  harmonize  the  conflicting 
elements  and  intimated  that  the  seceders  should  be  read- 
mitted at  Baltimore.  In  the  senatorial  caucus  that  followed, 
all  but  two  of  the  Democratic  senators  —  Senator  Douglas 
being  absent  —  sided  with  Senator  Davis  and  declared  for 
his  resolutions.     May  15  and  16  Senator  Douglas  replied. 

On  his  side  he  quoted  every  Democrat  living  and  dead 
except  John  C.  Calhoun.  Alone  with  Calhoun  he  classed 
the  Senator  from  Mississippi.  He  said:  "Secession  is  trea- 
son and  treason  means  war.  It  is  the  plan  of  the  seced- 
ers to  break  up  the  Union."  In  support  of  this  assertion  he 
read  W.  L.  Yancey's  letter  of  June  15,  1858,  in  which  he 
proposed  to  break  up  the  Union  and  form  a  Confederacy 
of  the  Cotton  States.  Then  said  Senator  Douglas:  "The 
seceders  would  not  at  first  take  in  the  border  states1  .  .  . 
They  would  be  left  in  the  Union  to  make  a  shield  against 
the  Abolitionist  and  as  a  protection  to  the  new  Cotton 
Confederacy  ....  Not  very  flattering  to  my  Virginia 
friends.  And  what  will  Kentucky  do,  with  the  Canadian 
line  moved  down  to  her  borders,  with  no  legal  or  moral 
obligation  on  the  Abolitionists  to  return  her  runaway 
slaves?"  He  then  paid  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  patriotism 
of  Daniel  Webster  and  Henry  Clay,  and  warned  Senator 
Davis  that  if  he  was  attacked  again  he  would  reply ;  other- 
wise he  would  remain  silent. 

The  thought  that  held  Kentucky  in  line  when  the  test 
came  was,  What  will  be  the  effect  on  the  Kentucky  slave- 
holder in  the  event  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union? 
Senator  Douglas  is  entitled  to  the  credit  for  first  advancing 

1  See  pages  124,  128,  130  and  131. 


ELECTED    TO    INDIANA    LEGISLATURE      115 

it.  My  husband  adopted  it  instanter  and  as  a  Republican 
used  it  with  telling  effect  in  helping  hold  Kentucky  in  the 
Union.  The  women  could  see  the  point.  Carrie  Taylor 
Harney  said,  "Those  fools  in  the  Cotton  States  will  lose  us 
our  niggers." 

In  his  "Lost  Cause,"  Mr.  Davis  says  little  about  this 
debate  with  Senator  Douglas.  It  seems  to  have  escaped 
the  historians  of  the  time,  but  it  is  most  important  because, 
aside  from  other  considerations,  it  made  every  Douglas 
man  a  Union  man,  as  was  evidently  Douglas's  purpose. 

During  that  Davis-Douglas  debate,  the  Louisville 
Democrat  said:  "The  seceders  want  to  get  back  to  the  Bal- 
timore Convention  when  it  assembles,  but  we  are  opposed 
to  admitting  them.  We  are  well  rid  of  them.  Those 
who  applauded  them  climbing  high  will  ridicule  them  com- 
ing down." 

Prentice  argued  in  his  paper  that  if  it  was  lawful — and 
he  said  it  was  —  for  a  territorial  legislature,  by  nonaction, 
to  deny  protection  to  a  slaveholder,  then  Congress  should 
legislate  directly  to  protect  the  slaveholder.  ' '  Congress  can- 
not force  the  territorial  legislature  to  act,  therefore  Con- 
gress must  control  the  Squatters.  It  is  wrong  and  immoral 
for  Congress  not  to  do  so.  No  territorial  legislature  will 
make  laws  to  protect  slavery;  Congress  must  make  them. 
...  If  the  legislature  be  unfriendly  to  slavery,  then 
the  Federal  government  must  interfere  and  nullify  such 
legislation." 

Harney  answered:  "This  effort  to  render  slavery  so  far 
national  as  to  put  any  phase  of  it  at  the  discretion  of  Con- 
gress is  a  work  of  political  insanity  in  the  South. 

"For  our  own  part  we  wash  our  hands  of  this  sectional 
movement.  The  Northern  democracy  have  granted  all  we 
have  a  right  to  ask.  They  held  back  the  Federal  govern- 
ment, after  a  desperate  struggle,  from  saying  that  the  people 
of  a  territory  should  not  have  slavery  if  they  wanted  it. 
They  will  not  say  to  the  people  of  a  territory,  'You  shall 


n6      LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

have  slavery,  however  much  you  are  opposed  to  it,'  which 
is  the  whole  substance  of  the  majorities'  resolutions.  They 
ought  not  to  say  it  and  we  ought  not  to  ask  them  to 
say  it." 

And  as  conclusive  statement  against  the  wisdom  of 
secession,  Major  Harney  said:  "Kansas  flaunts  her  anti- 
slavery  code  in  your  face  and  you  cannot  change  it.  Con- 
gress cannot  change  it,  the  President  cannot  change  it. 
.  .  .  New  Mexico  adopts  her  slave  code  and  our  Black 
Republicans  won't  dare  to  repeal  it." 

Only  on  one  occasion  was  there  anything  like  bitterness 
in  any  of  Mr.  Gresham's  discussions  with  my  father,  and 
that  was  when,  in  reply  to  an  assertion  of  my  father  that  the 
Republicans  were  inclined  to  be  proscriptive  of  the  foreign- 
born  citizens,  my  husband  said :  ' '  Most  of  the  foreign-born 
citizens  on  arrival  in  this  country  join  the  party  that  is 
dominated  by  the  slave  power  and  is  opposed  to  the  rule  of 
the  people  in  the  territories.  If  an  Irishman  or  German 
cannot  support  the  Republican  policy  with  reference  to  the 
territories  he  certainly  ought  to  support  Senator  Douglas. 
He  is  only  insisting  on  what  your  father  was  driven  out  of 
Ireland  for,  demanding  that  the  Irishman  rule  in  Ireland. 
The  Virginians  are  now  justifying  the  existence  of  slavery  in 
Virginia  because  they  say  the  British  government,  against 
the  wishes  of  the  early  colonists,  foisted  slavery  and  the 
slave  trade  upon  them.  What  possible  justification,  then, 
can  there  now  be  for  the  Virginians  and  Kentuckians  to 
insist  that  all  the  power  of  the  Federal  government  shall 
be  wielded  in  Kansas  to  make  that  territory  a  Slave  State 
against  the  wishes  of  the  settlers  there?" 

While  in  Mr.  Arthur's  cabinet  in  1883,  in  a  discussion 
between  my  husband  and  Mr.  Blaine  about  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  and  his  debates  with  Jefferson  Davis  in  i860, 
Mr.  Blaine  said  Douglas  was  the  best  debater  America  ever 
produced,  but  he  had  no  wit.  Speaking  about  Delaware 
at  Charleston,  Senator  Douglas  said:     "Little  Delaware  is 


ELECTED    TO    INDIANA    LEGISLATURE         117 

too  small  to  divide,  so  Senator  Bayard  will  come  back." 
Not  bad  for  a  man  devoid  of  wit! 

Mr.  Gresham  said  what  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  like:  "We 
all  soon  came  to  Douglas's  position  on  'Squatter  Sover- 
eignty.' Other  men  may  have  been  the  orators  and  the 
statesmen  of  the  Union  cause,  but  Douglas  was  its  lawyer. 
From  a  constitutional  and  legal  standpoint  he  justified  the 
use  of  force  to  maintain  the  Union." 

I  have  visited  many  Union  as  well  as  Confederate  sol- 
diers' homes.  To  me  they  all  are  saddening.  The  number 
of  suicides  among  the  veterans  —  the  truth  of  which  the  au- 
thorities suppressed  —  was  frightful.  After  talking  them- 
selves out  on  the  war,  there  is  nothing  to  do  but  await  the 
grim  reaper.  See  that  old  fellow  sitting  alone  glum  and 
morose.  Never  was  there  a  more  pitiful  object.  Soon  he 
anticipates  Nature.  One  of  the  saddest  of  all  places  was 
Beauvoir,  Jefferson  Davis's  last  home,  now  a  Confederate 
Mississippi  Soldiers'  Home.  Nowhere  was  I  ever  more  kind- 
ly treated  and  nowhere  did  my  heart  more  go  out  in  sym- 
pathy for  the  bronzed  and  grizzled  veteran  who  fought 
so  gallantly  under  such  able  leadership  in  the  field.  They 
all  talked  as  though  they  knew  my  husband  and  they  all 
remembered  Douglas.  One  said  to  me,  after  I  had  remarked 
that  war  is  a  crime  against  civilization,  "But  Douglas  took 
away  our  Constitution."  "Yes,"  I  replied,  "and  he  said  it 
was  his  Constitution."  "But  look  how  we  suffered,"  he 
answered.  "And  think  how  I  suffered,"  I  said.  "For 
over  a  year  I  had  a  wounded  husband  in  bed.  Think  of 
the  anxious  days  and  the  sleepless  nights  of  the  women, 
while  you  fellows  were  having  a  good  time,  and  then  tell 
me  if  you  men  should  go  to  war  over  a  constitutional  ques- 
tion. A  few  speeches  were  made,  drums  were  beat,  and 
you  were  in  line.  And  which  side  you  were  on,  most  of  you 
say,  whether  'Yank'  or  'Reb,'  all  depended  on  which  side 
of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line  you  were  born."  Not  a 
sufficient  reason  at  all  for  fighting  but  a  most  conclusive 
reason  for  getting  together. 


yj 


118        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Mississippi's  prohibition  in  1832  on  the  further  importa- 
tion of  slaves  at  least  gives  color  to  the  statement  of 
Jefferson  Davis  that  he  went  out  for  a  theory  of  govern- 
ment and  not  a  principle  of  morals,  and  supports  my 
conclusion  that  different  management  might  have  ended 
slavery  without  bloodshed.1  Indeed,  after  the  five  presi- 
dential tickets  were  in  the  field  in  i860,  Mr.  Davis  says  he 
sought  out  Senator  Douglas,  and  saying  he  was  authorized 
to  speak  for  Bell  and  Everett,  as  well  as  his  own  people, 
proposed  an  accommodation.  But  Douglas  was  implacable, 
and  the  "Black  Republicans"  in  less  than  a  year,  as  we 
have  before  remarked,  adopted  his  Squatter  Sovereignty. 
Of  all  the  men  of  his  time,  Douglas  alone  was  consistent 
from  start  to  finish. 

Involved  in  Douglas's  theory  of  government  was  the 
destruction  of  slavery.  My  Irish  compatriot,  the  Confed- 
erate General  Patrick  R.  Cleburne,  saw  it.  The  preserva- 
tion of  the  Union,  "Pat"  said,  meant  the  destruction  of 
slavery.  That  was  the  theory  of  Dennis  Pennington,  of 
Henry  Clay,  and  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham.  "Let  us  beat 
them  to  it,"  argued  General  Cleburne  to  President  Davis, 
"put  the  negro  with  him  in  our  ranks,  and  with  him  fight- 
ing for  his  beloved  South  and  his  home,  we  will  gain  our 
independence."  Read  the  letter  of  Robert  Dale  Owen  to 
Secretary  Chase  of  November  10,  1862,  in  which  Mr.  Owen 
urged  on  the  National  Government  that  if  the  negro 
remained  loyal  to  the  Confederacy  the  South  would  gain 
her  independence.2  When  too  late  the  Confederate  chief- 
tain adopted  the  Irishman's  advice. 

The  Union  party,  on  May  19,  at  Baltimore,  nominated 
John  Bell  of  Tennessee  for  President  and  Edward  Everett 
of  Massachusetts  for  Vice-President,  on  a  very  brief  plat- 
form, which  simply  declared  that  it  recognized  no  political 
principles  other  than  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  the 
union  of  States,  and  the  enforcement  of  laws. 

1  See  page  254.  2See  page  200;  also  page  464. 


ELECTED    TO    INDIANA    LEGISLATURE         119 

George  D.  Prentice,  whose  extreme  pro-slavery  views  in 
the  Louisville  Journal  tended  to  impeach  the  good  faith 
of  the  Bell  and  Everett  movement,  supported  it  with 
extraordinary  sagacity.  Although  Breckenridge  was  then 
Vice-President  and  senator-elect  from  Kentucky,  Prentice, 
with  the  support  of  patriots  like  John  J.  Crittenden,  whose 
all  was  sacrificed,  swung  Kentucky  to  Bell  and  Everett. 
Breckenridge  was  attacked  for  having,  as  late  as  1859, 
supported  the  Douglas  doctrine  of  non-intervention  in  the 
territories,  while  "John  Bell  has  always  been  against  it." 
To  catch  the  Democrats,  Prentice  told  how  John  Bell  had 
been  reared  in  Andrew  Jackson's  school,  and  to  get  the 
Whigs  he  said  that  in  1850  Henry  Clay  had  recommended 
Bell  for  a  place  in  Fillmore's  cabinet. 

While  Senator  Douglas  was  answering  Jefferson  Davis, 
the  Republican  party,  May  16,  at  Chicago,  was  nominating 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  President  and  Hannibal  Hamlin  of 
Maine  for  Vice-President. 

The  Republican  platform  deprecated  the  centralization 
tendencies  of  the  Buchanan  administration  and  of  the  pro- 
slavery  party;  denied  the  right  of  secession  and  demanded 
the  immediate  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  Free  State  under  the 
free  constitution  which  the  people  of  Kansas  had  adopted. 
While  it  disclaimed  any  intention  to  attempt  to  interfere 
with  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  States,  it  claimed  all 
the  territory  of  the  United  States  should  be  free,  and  said 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  should  be  adhered  to  as  a 
means  of  interpreting  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  especially  that  clause  of  the  Fifth  Amendment,  namely, 
1 '  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property 
without  due  process  of  the  law. ' '  It  was  under  this  identical 
clause  of  the  Fifth  Amendment  that  the  slaveholder  claimed 
protection  for  his  property. 

Lincoln  argued  that  the  word  "slave"  was  not  used  in 
the  Federal  Constitution  to  exclude  the  idea  that  there  could 
be  property  in  man,  but  Wendell  Phillips  told  the  slaveholder 


120        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

that  while  the  word  "  slave  "  was  not  in  the  Constitution  there 
were  other  words  that  meant  exactly  the  same  thing. 

In  July,  i860,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  nominated  by 
the  Republicans  as  their  candidate  in  Harrison  County  for 
the  lower  branch  of  the  legislature.  His  opponent,  William 
Hancock,  was  a  man  of  character  and  ability.  They  had 
joint  discussions  all  over  the  county.  All  the  legal,  consti- 
tutional, and  moral  questions  involved  in  the  slavery  ques- 
tion were  discussed  in  every  schoolhouse  in  the  county. 
All  the  Davises,  most  of  whom  were  Democrats,  voted  for 
him.  They  liked  his  morals  and  were  satisfied  with  his 
pledges  to  support  the  Constitution  and  laws,  a  pledge  made 
by  every  Republican  speaker  that  year,  but  unfortunately 
there  was  doubt  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the  pro-slavery 
people  as  to  the  sincerity  of  these  pledges. 

Many  of  the  old-line  Democrats  from  Virginia  and  Ken- 
tucky voted  for  my  husband.  A  young  Virginian,  William 
N.  Tracewell,  afterwards  an  able  and  prominent  lawyer,  who 
remained  a  Democrat  to  his  dying  day,  not  only  voted  for 
him  but  was  active  in  his  interest.  Gresham  defeated 
Hancock  by  sixty  votes,  the  vote  being  Gresham  1,797, 
Hancock  1,737.  For  Lane  and  Morton  for  governor  and 
lieutenant-governor,  there  were  1,691  votes;  for  Hendricks 
and  Turpie,  the  Democratic  candidates,  1,876.  In  the 
November  election  for  presidential  electors,  the  vote  in 
Harrison  County  for  Douglas  and  Johnson  was  1,848;  for 
Lincoln  and  Hamlin,  1,593;  f°r  Breckenridge  and  Lane, 
36;  for  Bell  and  Everett,  17.  In  the  nation,  of  the  pop- 
ular vote,  Mr.  Lincoln  received  1,865,913;  Mr.  Douglas, 
1,374,664;   Mr.   Breckenridge,    848,404;  Mr.  Bell,  S^^00- 


CHAPTER  VIII 
UNION   SPEECHES   IN   KENTUCKY 


SECESSION  —  GRESHAM  MAKES  UNION  SPEECHES  IN  KEN- 
TUCKY—  RESOLUTIONS  DEPRECATING  SECESSION  OF  SOUTH 
CAROLINA — HENRY      CLAY'S      SPEECH      IN      DEBATE      ON      THE 

COMPROMISE    OF    1850 USED    BY    GRESHAM CRITTENDEN'S 

RESOLUTIONS   IN  SENATE    FOR  AMENDMENT  OF  CONSTITUTION 

TO     SETTLE    CONTROVERSY    BETWEEN    NORTH    AND    SOUTH 

GEORGE  D.  PRENTICE'S  POSITION  AND  VIEWS  AS  EXPRESSED 
IN  NEWSPAPER  EDITORIALS KENTUCKY  ADOPTS  NEUTRAL- 
ITY   AND    STAYS    IN    UNION. 

T^OLLOWING  the  election,  the  excitement  which  had 
*  preceded  it  increased.  When  it  became  known  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected,  the  Federal  officeholders  in  South 
Carolina  resigned,  her  senators  withdrew  from  Washington, 
and  her  legislature  assembled  and  issued  a  call  for  a  con- 
vention to  meet  at  Columbia  on  the  18th  of  December. 

On  the  1 6th  of  November,  Governor  Magoffin,  who  was 
an  out-and-out  Secessionist,  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the 
Frankfort  Yeoman,  asked,  "What  will  Kentucky  do,  and 
what  ought  she  to  do,  now  that  Lincoln  is  elected  Presi- 
dent?" "Secede,"  my  father  and  the  Secessionists  prompt- 
ly answered. 

The  great  question  at  once  was,  What  would  the  Border 
States  —  Missouri,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Kentucky  —  do? 
And  most  important  of  all,  because  it  would  be  most  prob- 
lematical, what  would  be  the  action  of  Kentucky?  Doug- 
las men  were  for  the  Union ;  most  of  the  Breckenridge  men 
were  Secessionists.  Kentucky's  strategic  position  in  the 
event  of  war  was  of  great  importance.  Without  her,  the 
Confederacy  could  not  succeed. 


122        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Had  Kentucky  gone  out  solid  it  might  have  turned  the 
tide.  Not  that  Kentucky  alone  would  have  been  such  a 
predominating  influence,  although  it  would  have  been  a 
very  great  one,  but  such  action  would  have  affected  a  large 
number  of  men  in  three  other  States.  The  80,000  gallant 
soldiers  Kentucky  furnished  to  the  armies  of  the  Union, 
and  they  did  not  enlist,  as  we  will  presently  show,  until 
pledges  were  made  by  the  National  government  that  their 
slave  property  would  be  respected,  added  at  the  start  to  the 
80,000  Kentuckians  who  entered  the  Confederate  Army, 
would  have  carried  with  them  a  large  part  of  the  men  of 
southern  Indiana,  Ohio,  and  Illinois.  Ridiculous  as  it  may 
be,  the  board  of  commissioners  of  one  of  the  southern  Illinois 
counties  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession.  And  it  was  a 
long  time  before  John  A.  Logan  cast  his  lot  with  the  Union. 
Early  in  November,  i860,  at  a  Union  meeting  at  Rockport, 
Spencer  County,  Indiana  —  and  there  were  many  such 
throughout  southern  Indiana  —  the  Secessionists  took  pos- 
session of  the  meeting  and  passed  a  resolution  that  if  the 
Union  must  be  dissolved,  which  they  hoped  would  not 
happen,  they  wanted  the  dividing  line  north  of  the  Ohio 
River. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  T.  B.  Farleigh  and  W.  L. 
Coale,  of  the  Brandenburg  bar,  submitted  to  the  people  of 
Meade  and  the  adjoining  counties  a  series  of  resolutions 
that  were  to  be  considered  at  a  general  public  meeting  to 
be  held  in  the  Meade  County  Court  House  in  Brandenburg 
on  the  first  Monday  in  the  following  December.  They 
invited  Judge  Porter,  Mr.  Slaughter,  and  my  husband  to 
attend  this  meeting.  "Tom"  Farleigh,  as  he  was  called, 
was  then  as  ever  afterwards  a  devoted  friend  of  my  hus- 
band. After  hostilities  actually  began  he  went  into  the 
Union  Army  as  colonel  of  one  of  the  Kentucky  cavalry 
regiments. 

These  resolutions  deprecated  the  proposed  action  of 
South  Carolina;    asserted  that  no  right  to  secede  existed 


UNION     SPEECHES     IN     KENTUCKY  123 

under  the  Federal  constitution,  but  recognized  the  right 
of  revolution  as  a  legal  right  inhering  in  society;  asserted 
a  purpose  to  support  the  Union  and  that  allegiance  was  to 
the  whole  Union  and  not  to  any  party  or  section ;  declared 
that  that  was  the  position  of.  Kentucky  and  the  other  Bor- 
der States,  which  were  exposed  to  perils  that  did  not  be- 
set the  Cotton  States.  "To  our  brethren  of  the  North," 
the  resolutions  continued,  "we  would  say  the  same,  and 
more  especially  will  we  say,  since  several  of  their  States 
have  practically  and  substantially  nullified  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  by  State  legislation,  that  we  regard  this  action  on 
their  part  as  subversive  of  the  Constitution,  and  we  urge 
the  repeal  of  all  State  legislation  in  derogation  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  and  a  proper  enforcement  thereof." 

There  was  a  large  attendance  from  Meade  County  and 
good  delegations  from  Hardin  and  Breckenridge  counties. 
Olie  C.  Richardson,  the  man  who  helped  settle  the  Branden- 
burg affair,  a  large  slaveholder,  presided.  My  husband 
was  put  forward  as  the  speaker  from  the  north  side  of  the 
Ohio  River,  because  he  was  a  Republican  and  a  member- 
elect  of  the  Indiana  legislature.  He  liked  to  lead  and  never 
feared  responsibility. 

The  resolutions  made  it  plain  that  the  words  and  the 
teachings  of  Henry  Clay  had  not  been  forgotten. 

They  recalled  the  words  of  Mr.  Clay  in  his  reply  to 
Senator  Barnwell,  Calhoun's  colleague,  in  the  debate  on 
the  Compromise  of  1850,  which  Mr.  Gresham  quoted: 

The  Honorable  Senator  speaks  of  Virginia  being  "my  coun- 
try." The  Union  is  my  country;  the  thirty  States  are  my  coun- 
try. She  has  created  on  my  part  obligations  and  feelings  and 
duties  toward  her  in  my  private  character  which  nothing  upon 
earth  would  induce  me  to  forget  or  violate.  But  even  if  it  were 
my  own  State, — if  my  own  State  lawlessly,  contrary  to  her  duty, 
should  raise  the  standard  of  disunion  against  the  residue  of  the 
Union — I  would  go  against  her.  I  would  go  against  Kentucky 
in  that  contingency,  much  as  I  love  her. 


124       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Nor  am  I  to  be  alarmed  or  dissuaded  from  any  such  course 
by  intimations  of  spilling  of  blood.  If  blood  be  spilt,  by  whose 
fault  is  it  to  be  spilt?  It  will  be  the  fault  of  those  who  raise  the 
standard  of  disunion  and  endeavor  to  prostrate  this  government; 
and,  sir,  when  this  is  done,  so  long  as  it  pleases  God  to  give  me 
voice  to  express  my  sentiments,  or  an  arm,  weak  and  enfeebled 
as  it  may  be  by  age,  that  voice  and  that  arm  will  be  on  the  side 
of  my  country  for  the  support  of  the  general  authority,  and  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  powers  of  this  Union. 

Mr.  President,  I  said  nothing  with  respect  to  the  character 
of  Mr.  Rhett.  I  know  him  personally,  and  have  some  respect 
for  him.  But  if  he  pronounced  the  sentiment  attributed  to  him 
of  raising  the  standard  of  disunion  and  resisting  the  common 
government,  whatever  he  has  been,  if  he  follows  up  that  decla- 
ration by  corresponding  overt  acts,  he  will  be  a  traitor,  and  I 
hope  he  will  meet  the  fate  of  a  traitor.1 

After  quoting  Clay's  words  above,  Mr.  Gresham  spoke 
as  follows: 

The  colony  of  Virginia,  to  her  honor,  had  protested  to  the 
British  king  against  sending  slaves  to  her  shores.  She  was  the 
first  State  to  abolish  the  slave  trade.  She  had  protested  against 
the  action  of  South  Carolina  and  Massachusetts  in  engrafting 
into  the  national  Constitution  the  twenty-year  limit  on  the  power 
of  Congress  to  abolish  the  African  slave-trade.  Can  she  now  sus- 
tain an  administration  that  is  proposing  to  fasten  on  the  settlers 
of  Kansas  a  system  they  do  not  want?  If  she  does,  her  noble 
sons  and  their  descendants  who,  with  Thomas  Jefferson  as  their 
guide,  have  made  the  great  northwestern  States  what  they  are, 
will  not  follow  her  lead.  Henry  Clay  had  gone  to  death  believ- 
ing he  had  dedicated  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  freedom. 

But  however  this  may  all  be,  what  will  be  the  position  of 
the  Kentucky  slaveholder  with  the  Canadian  border  moved  down 
to  the  Ohio  River  and  every  man  on  its  north  bank  an  Abolition- 
ist? What  aid  then  would  South  Carolina  be  to  Kentucky? 
Better  should  she  continue  in  peace  and  amity  with  her  northern 
neighbors,  many  of  whose  citizens  were,  as  I  am,  bound  to  her  by 
ties  of  consanguinity  as  well  as  interest  and  friendship. 

1  See  page  130. 


UNION    SPEECHES    IN    KENTUCKY  125 

Myself,  my  associates,  and  my  party  are  pledged  not  to 
attempt  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  any  of  the  States. 

The  rights  of  the  individual  States  will  be  sacredly  respected. 
The  Personal  Liberty  Laws  of  the  Free  States  are  all  wrong  and 
should  be  repealed.  Indiana  has  none  such  on  her  statute  books; 
and  I  believe  I  am  safe  in  making  the  pledge  that  Indiana  never 
will  pass  such  laws  —  certainly  not  the  legislature  of  that  State, 
soon  to  assemble,  of  which  I  am  a  Republican  member-elect.1 

Mr.  Gresham  continued  in  a  similar  strain,  pledging 
himself  and  his  associates  to  support  in  good  faith  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  and  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
" however  harsh  some  of  its  provisions  seem  to  me."  "But 
secession,"  he  said,  "is  no  remedy  for  any  evil.  The  Union 
dismembered,  all  will  be  lost.  Within  the  Union  all  differ- 
ences can  be  settled,  all  rights  adjusted." 

Captain  Phillips  said  that  this  speech  delighted  the  Ken- 
tuckians,  and  it  was  quoted  far  and  wide  as  a  sample  of 
what  the  Republicans  meant  to  do. 

During  November  and  December,  i860,  these  Union 
meetings  were  held  all  over  Kentucky,  and  they  were  most 
fortunate  and  effective,  for  they  prevented  the  slaveholder 
from  being  carried  off  his  feet.  They  broke  the  Secession- 
ist wave. 

December  18,  i860,  Senator  John  J.  Crittenden  of  Ken- 
tucky introduced  a  series  of  resolutions  in  the  United  States 
Senate  looking  to  the  amendment  of  the  Constitution  for 
the  purpose,  as  his  resolutions  recited,  of  settling  the  con- 
troversy which  had  arisen  between  the  Northern  and 
Southern  sections  "of  our  once-united  and  happy  country." 

Notwithstanding  the  presentation  of  Senator  Critten- 
den's resolutions  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  resolutions  of  many  of  her  sister  States  to  await  a  con- 
ference of  the  Slave  States,  two  days  later  the  South  Caro- 
lina convention  repealed  the  act  ratifying  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  and  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession; 
and  in  an  address  issued  to  the  Cotton  States  gave  as  the 

1  See  pages  130  and  131. 

9 


126       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

principal  reason  for  her  action  Mr.  Lincoln's  "House  Di- 
vided against  Itself"  speech,  asserting  that  the  States  must 
become  " either  all  slave  or  all  free." 

Acting  under  the  general  welfare  clause,  if  African  slavery 
in  the  Southern  States  be  the  evil  their  political  combinations 
affirm  it  to  be,  the  requisites  of  an  inexorable  logic  must  lead  them 
to  emancipation.  If  it  is  right  to  preclude  or  abolish  slavery  in 
a  territory,  why  should  it  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  States? 
According  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  it  is  no 
more  unconstitutional  in  the  territories  than  in  the  States. 

Then  this  complaint  was  made  of  the  Personal  Liberty 
laws  and  the  Abolitionists: 

We  affirm  that  these  ends  which  the  government  has  insti- 
tuted have  been  defeated  and  the  government  itself  has  been 
made  destructive  by  them  by  the  action  of  the  non-slaveholding 
States.  Those  States  have  assumed  the  right  of  deciding  upon 
the  propriety  of  our  domestic  institutions,  and  have  denied  the 
rights  of  property  established  in  fifteen  of  the  States  and  recog- 
nized by  the  Constitution;  they  have  denounced  as  sinful  the 
institution  of  slavery;  they  have  permitted  the  open  establish- 
ment among  them  of  societies,  whose  avowed  object  is  to  dis- 
turb the  peace  and  purloin  the  property  of  the  citizens  of  other 
States.  They  have  encouraged  and  assisted  thousands  of  our 
slaves  to  leave  their  homes;  and  those  who  remained  have  been 
incited  by  emissaries,  books,  and  pictures  to  servile  insurrection. 

Possibly  if  Lincoln  had  not  made  his  "House  Divided 
against  Itself,"  speech,  South  Carolina  would  have  found 
some  other  pretext  to  line  him  up  with  the  Abolitionists. 

In  a  large  measure  a  dead  letter,  except  to  arouse  the 
pro-slavery  people,  the  Personal  Liberty  Laws  should  have 
been  repealed  in  every  State.  In  his  farewell  address,  Jan- 
uary 20,  1 86 1,  in  many  respects  admirable  in  tone,  Jeffer- 
son Davis  adverted  to  the  Personal  Liberty  Laws  of  Massa- 
chusetts as  a  reason  for  following  Mississippi.  As  a  means 
of  helping  to  hold  the  Border  States  Mr.  Lincoln  enforced 


UNION    SPEECHES    IN    KENTUCKY  127 

the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  the  first  few  months  of  his  adminis- 
tration more  effectively  than  his  predecessor,  James  Bucha- 
nan, had  done.1 

But,  in  the  meantime,  the  action  of  South  Carolina 
in  actually  seceding,  so  far  as  a  State  could  do  so,  and 
her  address  to  the  Slave  States,  infused  new  hope  and  life 
into  the  Kentucky  Secessionists.  December  27  Governor 
Magoffin  issued  a  call  for  the  Kentucky  legislature  to  meet 
in  special  session  January  17,  1861. 

What  would  be  George  D.  Prentice's  final  position? 
This  was  the  subject  of  the  gravest  concern  to  the  Union 
leaders  without  as  well  as  within  Kentucky.  Of  Lin- 
coln's election  Prentice  had  said  in  his  paper:  "We  have 
prayed  fervently  against  the  event  and  now  we  most  sin- 
cerely deplore  it."  Mr.  Prentice,  as  we  have  shown,  had 
overshadowed  all  other  forces  in  casting  the  electoral  vote 
of  Kentucky  for  Bell  and  Everett,  although  John  C.  Breck- 
enridge,  the  pro-slavery  candidate,  was  a  native  of  Ken- 
tucky and  then  a  senator-elect  from  that  State.  The  Bell 
and  Everett  vote  was  66,016;  the  Breckenridge  vote 
52,836;  Douglas  25,644,  and  Lincoln  1,366.  But  all  this 
time  Prentice's  heart  was  with  South  Carolina,  and  in  ad- 
vancing the. Bell  and  Everett  ticket  he  had  gone  beyond 
even  the  South  Carolinians  in  advocating  the  claims  of  the 
slaveholder.  He  was  not  a  mere  scribbler  but  "was  equally 
forcible  with  knife  and  pistol  as  with  pen."  Had  he  then 
run  up  the  Confederate  flag,  as  he  afterwards  prepared  to 
do,  many  of  Kentucky's  young  men  who  subsequently 
enlisted  in  the  Union  Army  would  have  gone  into  the  Con- 
federacy, and  most  likely  Kentucky  herself  would  have 
"gone  out."  Prentice's  son  was  one  of  the  first  to  take  up 
arms  for  the  Confederacy.  But  Prentice's  partners  were 
Union  men.  And  most  fortunate  was  it  that  he  was  in- 
duced to  take  a  waiting  or  neutral  position. 

On  his  way  to  Indianapolis  to  attend  the  legislature, 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  went  to  see  Mr.  Prentice,  as  he  himself 

1  See  page  139. 


128       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

said,  to  assure  Prentice  that  Indiana  would,  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Republicans,  faithfully  obey  all  her  constitu- 
tional obligations  to  her  Kentucky  sister.  On  the  7th  of 
January,  1861,  my  husband  wrote  me  from  Indianapolis: 
"I  was  with  Mr.  Prentice  a  few  hours  yesterday  evening 
at  Louisville.  He  talks  all  right;  says  he  believes  Mr. 
Lincoln  is  an  honest,  good  man,  wise  and  conservative." 

In  an  editorial  in  the  Louisville  Journal  the  next  morn- 
ing, Mr.  Prentice  said:  " South  Carolina,  without  consid- 
eration, has  jumped  out  of  the  Union;  let  Kentucky  con- 
sider well  where  she  would  land  before  she  jumps.  .  .  . 
South  Carolina  is  in  a  different  position  than  Kentucky. 
She  has  no  neighbors,  as  Kentucky  has,  unfriendly  to  her 
domestic  institutions,  who  would  be  free  from  all  moral 
and  legal  obligations  to  return  her  runaway  slaves  after 
she,  Kentucky,  went  out  of  the  Union."1 

When  the  Kentucky  legislature  met  on  the  17  th  of 
January,  instead  of  calling  a  convention  as  the  Governor 
desired,  it  adopted  neutrality  as  the  policy  of  the  State, 
and  adjourned  within  thirty  days  with  an  appeal  "to  the 
southern  brother  to  stay  the  hand  of  secession,"  but  it 
protested  against  the  general  government  using  force  to 
coerce  the  seceding  States. 
v  Equivocal  as  these  resolutions  were,  they  left  Kentucky 

in  the  Union. 


1  See  page  114. 


CHAPTER   IX 
INDIANA   PREPARES   FOR  WAR 


FIRST   SESSION   OF   INDIANA  LEGISLATURE RESOLUTIONS 

ON    THE     STATE     AND     THE     UNION GRESHAM     REPRESENTS 

THE     "TRAITOR"    HEFFRON     IN     KENTUCKY    COURTS PEACE 

CONFERENCE WENDELL  PHILLIPS'S  SPEECH  —  ABOLITIONISTS 

WOULD    NOT     COMPROMISE GRESHAM     CHAIRMAN    MILITARY 

COMMITTEE    OF    THE    HOUSE,    AND    COLONEL    ON    GOVERNOR'S 

STAFF CRITTENDEN       RESOLUTIONS GRESHAM's       BREACH 

WITH     GOVERNOR    MORTON SPECIAL    SESSION     OF    INDIANA 

LEGISLATURE  —  GRESHAM  PUTS  THROUGH  BILL  VESTING 
APPOINTMENT  OF  FIELD  AND  LINE  OFFICERS  OF  REGIMENTS 
IN    HANDS    OF    GOVERNOR. 

WHEN  the  Indiana  legislature  assembled  on  the  ioth 
of  January,  Horace  Heffron,  the  Democratic  member 
from  Harrison  and  Washington  counties,  who  was  the 
Democratic  caucus  candidate  for  speaker,  attempted,  as 
the  House  organized,  to  have  it  adopt  a  resolution  that 
no.  man  should  be  elected  speaker,  or  to  any  other  office 
under  the  legislature,  who  was  not  in  favor  of  amending 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  on  the  line  of  the 
Crittenden  Resolutions. 

The  great  work  of  that  legislature  was  to  place  Indiana 
right  on  the  question  of  secession,  and  so  to  amend  or 
revise  the  military  law  of  the  State  as  to  enable  it  properly 
to  support  the  National  government.  A  large  number  of 
the  members  of  both  the  House  and  Senate  introduced 
resolutions  on  "the  State  and  the  Union."  As  a  sample 
of  what  they  were,  I  offer  the  following,  which  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  introduced   the  second  day  of   the  session,   the 

129 


130       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

day  before  Henry  S.  Lane  was  inaugurated  Governor  of 
Indiana  and  Oliver  P.  Morton  Lieutenant-Governor.  In  a 
few  days  Mr.  Lane  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate and  Mr.  Morton  became  Governor.  A  copy  of  the 
resolutions,  together  with  the  speech  in  their  support,  was 
sent  to  George  D.  Prentice.  Both  Lane  and  Morton  re- 
garded Prentice's  attitude  as  of  the  greatest  importance  and 
were  much  interested  in  the  conference  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
had  had  with  him  only  six  days  before.  The  resolutions 
read: 

Resolved:  That  the  people  of  this  State  still  retain  their 
affection  for  the  Union  inherited  from  the  generation  of  men 
who  achieved  our  liberties  in  the  great  struggle  for  independence, 
and  secured  them  in  that  sacred  instrument,  the  Constitution, 
in  which  justice  is  established,  domestic  tranquillity  is  insured, 
and  the  common  defense  and  general  welfare  are  provided  for; 
and  they  regard  its  perpetuation  as  the  only  safe  guaranty  for  the 
continuance  of  the  wonderful  prosperity  and  happiness  which  have 
led  us  to  our  present  high  position  amongst  the  great  powers  of 
the  earth;  and  they  deny  the  right  of  any  member  of  this  confed- 
eracy to  repudiate  the  Constitution  made  by  all  the  people  of  the 
States,  by  seceding  from  the  Union,  and  thereby  disturbing  the 
harmony  and  periling  the  happiness  of  the  whole. 

2.  That  while  we  will  not  deny  to  any  State  a  right  guaran- 
teed by  the  Constitution,  we  insist  that  the  authority  of  the 
general  government  shall  be  maintained  and  the  Constitutional 
laws  of  Congress  impartially  enforced  in  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories; and  that  the  armed  resistance  to  the  execution  thereof,  on  the 
part  of  the  citizens  of  any  State,  is  treason. 

3.  That  the  people  of  Indiana  are  opposed  to  any  interfer- 
ence by  the  Government  of  people  of  our  State  with  the  domestic 
institutions  of  another;  that  they  ever  have  and  always  will  main- 
tain the  same  respect  for  the  rights  of  other  States  which  they 
zealously  exact  for  their  own ;  that  they  will  scrupulously  discharge 
all  their  constitutional  obligations  toward  sister  States,  and  they 
demand  a  like  observance  of  the  same  from  the  other  States  of  the 
Union. 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  131 

4.  That  if  any  State  of  this  Union  has  enactments  on  its 
statute  books  in  conflict  with  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, or  any  of  the  laws  of  Congress  passed  in  pursuance 
thereof,  it  is  the  duty  of  such  State  to  repeal  the  same. 

5.  That  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  government,  and  of  the 
several  States,  to  secure  to  the  citizens  of  each  State  all  the  privi- 
leges and  immunities  of  the  citizens  of  the  several  States  as  guar-' 
anteed  in  the  Constitution,  and  a  failure  to  discharge  this  obli- 
gation will  destroy  that  harmony  and  paternal  feeling  which  lie 
at  the  foundation  of  our  free  institutions. 

6.  That  the  conduct  of  these  patriotic  men,  who  in  the 
midst  of  the  tide  of  disunion  which  is  sweeping  over  a  portion  of 
our  once  happy  country,  still  retain  their  affection  for  the  Union 
and  are  bravely  battling  for  the  preservation  of  the  authority 
of  the  general  government,  excites  our  earnest  sympathies  and 
challenges  our  admiration. 

7.  That  in  view  of  the  fact  that  a  portion  of  the  citizens  of 
some  of  the  States  of  the  Union  are  in  open,  armed  rebellion 
against  the  power  and  authority  and  threaten  the  overthrow  of 
the  general  government,  we  hereby  pledge,  whenever  necessary 
and  demanded,  in  strict  subordination  to  the  civil  authority,  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  general 
government,  the  entire  power  and  resources  of  the  State  of 
Indiana. 

These  resolutions,  with  all  Others,  went  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Federal  Relations.  They  emerged  as  a  report 
which  omitted  the  word  "treason."  Men  who  claimed  that 
the  Personal  Liberty  Laws  were  right  were  afraid  to  use 
the  word  "treason."  Walter  Q.  Gresham  had  used  that 
word  south  of  the  river;  he  could  use  it  north  of  the  river. 
These  resolutions  as  finally  adopted  pledged  all  the  power 
of  the  State  of  Indiana  to  preserve  the  only  government  on 
earth  wherein  the  rights  of  man  constituted  the  foundation 
of  its  laws  and  the  measure  of  its  civil  authority,  and  they 
deprecated  any  purpose  to  interfere  with  the  right  of  each 
State  to  regulate  its  own  domestic  affairs. 


132       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

The  minority  report  proposed  the  Crittenden  Resolu- 
tions instead,  as  a  basis  for  settling  the  difference  between 
the  North  and  South.  It  also  deprecated  the  use  of  force 
to  coerce  the  Secessionists  back  into  the  Union. 

While  these  reports  were  pending  under  debate,  on  the 
19th  of  January  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  by  telegraph, 
issued  an  invitation  to  all  the  States  to  send  delegates  to  a 
conference  to  meet  in  the  city  of  Washington  on  February  4, 
1 86 1,  to  discuss  the  proposed  amendments  to  the  Con- 
stitution that  might  settle  the  differences  which  then  exist- 
ed on  the  slavery  question.  It  suggested  the  Crittenden 
Resolutions  as  a  basis  of  settlement,  with  Crittenden's  first 
proposition  so  changed  as  to  provide  that  slavery  should  be 
recognized  not  only  in  the  present  but  in  all  future  acquired 
territory  south  of  the  line  3 6°  30'.  The  discussion  of  the 
resolutions  —  they  were  discussed  throughout  the  country 
and  in  every  State  legislature  that  met  that  winter — largely 
contributed  to  postpone  the  actual  conflict  until  after  Mr. 
Lincoln's  inauguration.  In  1858  Davis  had  told  the  Mis- 
sissippians  that  if  it  came  to  a  finish  fight,  the  South  could 
not  win. 

The  Crittenden  Resolutions  were  to  be  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  and,  if  adopted,  never  to 
be  changed.  They  proposed:  To  renew  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise line  360  30';  prohibit  slavery  north  and  permit  it 
south  of  that  line;  admit  new  States  with  or  without  slavery, 
as  their  constitutions  might  provide;  prohibit  Congress 
from  abolishing  slavery  in  the  States,  and  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  so  long  as  it  existed  in  Virginia  or  Maryland; 
permit  free  transmission  of  slaves  by  land  or  water  in  any 
State;  make  the  State  and  the  county  or  municipality 
responsible  to  the  owner  of  the  fugitive  slaves  rescued  after 
arrest,  with  the  right  to  the  State  or  municipality  to  re- 
cover from  the  rescuing  parties;  repeal  the  inequality  of 
commissioners'  fees  in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act;  and  ask 
the  repeal  of  the  Personal  Liberty  Laws  of  the  Northern 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  133 

States,  passed   in  derogation  of   the  Fugitive  Slave  Act. 

In  the  course  of  the  debate  in  the  Indiana  legislature, 
Horace  Heflron  and  G.  O.  Moody  got  into  a  controversy 
that  led  to  Heflron  sending  Moody  a  challenge.  Their  sec- 
onds settled  their  differences,  greatly  to  their  satisfaction, 
it  was  said,  after  they  reached  the  field  of  honor.  But 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  and  as  it  was  thought  at  the  time, 
seconds  as  well  as  principals  were  indicted  by  the  Kenton 
County  Grand  Jury  for  coming  into  Kentucky  to  fight  a 
duel.  And  thus  it  was  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham  never  met 
Abraham  Lincoln.  For  while  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  his  way  to 
Washington  to  be  inaugurated,  was  in  Indianapolis  stopping 
at  the  Bates  House,  where  my  husband  lived,  the  latter  was 
in  the  Kentucky  courts  representing  the  "traitor,"  Horace 
Heffron.     He  not  only  got  Heflron  off  but  all  the  others. 

As  the  result  of  the  debate,  the  minority  or  Heffron 
report  was  rejected  and  the  majority  report  adopted.  The 
proposition  of  John  H.  Stotsenburgh  of  Floyd  County  to 
have  a  special  election  as  to  whether  Indiana  would  accept 
the  Crittenden  Amendment  as  a  basis  of  compromise  was 
voted  down,  and  then  Indiana,  most  of  the  Democrats 
concurring,  responded  to  the  invitation  of  Virginia  by 
authorizing  Governor  Morton  to  appoint  five  delegates  to 
the  Peace  Conference. 

Governor  Morton  appointed  as  one  of  the  delegates 
Thomas  C.  Slaughter,  my  husband's  former  partner  and 
his  best  friend.  Mr.  Gresham  told  Mr.  Slaughter  that  it 
was  agreed  at  Indianapolis  that  the  delegates  from  Indiana 
to  the  Peace  Conference  should  oppose  the  first  provision 
of  the  Crittenden  Resolution;  that  is,  the  one  recognizing 
slavery  south  of  the  line  360  3c/  as  a  basis  for  adjustment; 
instead  they  should  offer  popular  sovereignty  south  of  that 
line,  and  any  pledge  the  pro-slavery  people  desired  that 
the  anti-slavery  people  would  live  up  to  the  Constitution 
as  the  fathers  had  written  it.  "For  one,"  my  husband 
said,  "and  I  know  the  sentiment  of  the  young  men,  we  will 


134       LIFE    OF    WALTER    Q  UINTI N    GRE  SH  AM 

never  consent  to  a  Thirteenth  or  any  other  amendment  to 
the  Constitution,  giving  the  slaveholder  a  stronger  claim 
than  he  has  now.  Rather  than  that,  we  will  fight.  The 
fathers  expected  slavery  to  be  abolished  long  before  this. 
You  are  enough  of  a  diplomat  to  avoid  saying  what  will 
irritate."  The  record  of  that  Peace  Conference  shows  how 
Mr.  Slaughter  performed  his  duty. 

The  Peace  Conference  met  February  4  and  was  in  ses- 
sion until  the  28th.  It  was  composed  of  many  eminent 
men.  Ex- President  Tyler  of  Virginia  was  one  of  its  mem- 
bers and  was  made  its  presiding  officer.  James  Guthrie 
was  one  of  the  Kentucky  delegates. 

In  lieu  of  Mr.  Crittenden's  proposition,  that  all  the  ter- 
ritory south  of  the  line  3  6°  30'  should  be  recognized  as  slave 
territory,  the  Conference  adopted  popular  sovereignty  for 
that  territory,  but  with  conditions  which  the  pro-slavery 
men  said  simply  gave  them  the  right  to  have  a  lawsuit 
after  they  took  their  slaves  into  the  territory  south  of  the 
3  6°  30'  line.  Still  a  majority  of  the  pro-slavery  men  accept- 
ed or  "swallowed"  the  report,  and  Kentucky,  led  by  James 
Guthrie,  favored  peace  on  any  terms.  Senator  Crittenden, 
who  was  patriotic  to  the  core,  said  he  would  favor  it  or 
any  other  proposition  that  could  be  agreed  on  for  the  pur- 
pose of  saving  the  Union. 

At  this  time  there  might  have  been  an  adjustment  but 
for  the  Abolitionists. 

The  "Grape  Vine"  from  Montgomery  was  bringing  the 
news  that  Jefferson  Davis  did  not  want  the  issue  to  go  to 
war.  At  this  time  he  could  not  sleep  at  night,  so  his  wife 
tells  us.  His  farewell  address  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  tinctured  with  sadness,  did  not  preclude  his  return, 
and  in  his  inaugural  address  to  the  Provisional  Congress  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America,  he  deprecated  war,  and 
held  out  the  hand  of  reconciliation.  As  before  mentioned, 
when  the  test  came,  Jefferson  Davis  would  not,  or  at  least 
did  not,  order  Beauregard  to  fire  the  shot  at  the  flag  at 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  135 

Sumter  that  precluded  the  possibility  of  a  peaceable  settle- 
ment. The  overtures  of  the  president  of  the  Provisional 
Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  were  an- 
swered by  Mr.  Seward  and  Mr.  Lincoln  by  the  proposition 
to  amend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  so  as  to  pro- 
vide that  slavery  should  never  be  disturbed  in  the  States 
where  it  existed  except  by  unanimous  consent.  Before 
this  the  announcement  had  gone  forth  that  Seward  would 
be  Secretary  of  State. 

Then  it  was,  on  February  17,  1861,  that  Wendell  Phillips 
spoke : 

Seward  will  swear  to  obey  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  but  will  not  keep  his  oath. 

Bankrupt  South  Carolina,  with  100,000  more  slaves  than 
whites  within  her  borders,  throws  down  her  gauntlet  at  the  feet 
of  25,000,000  people  in  defense  of  an  idea  which  she  thinks  is 
right.  I  would  that  New  England  had  one  State  among  her  six 
so  brave. 

Union  or  no  Union,  Constitution  or  no  Constitution,  freedom 
for  every  man  between  the  oceans  and  from  the  frozen  pole  to 
the  hot  gulf.  You  may  as  well  attempt  to  dam  up  the  Niagara 
with  bullrushes  as  try  to  bind  our  anti-slavery  purpose  with  a 
congressional  compromise.     The  South  knows  it. 

But  let  the  world  distinctly  understand  why  the  slaveholding 
States  leave  the' Union — to  save  slavery!  and  why  we  rejoice  at 
their  departure — because  we  know  their  declaration  of  independ- 
ence is  the  jubilee  of  the  slave. 

Thirty  years  devoted  to  earnest  use  of  moral  means  show  how 
sincere  is  our  wish  that  this  question  should  have  a  peaceful 
solution.  If  your  idols — your  Websters,  Clays,  Calhouns,  Sew- 
ards,  Adamses — had  done  their  duty,  so  it  would  have  been. 
Not  ours  the  guilt  of  this  storm,  or  of  the  future,  however  bloody. 
But  I  hesitate  not  to  say  that  I  prefer  an  insurrection  which  frees 
the  slaves  in  ten  years  to  slavery  for  a  century.  A  slave  I  pity. 
A  rebellious  slave  I  respect. 

Inciting  the  slaves  to  insurrection  was  a  scheme  from 
which  I  have  shown  my  husband  revolted  in  horror. 


136       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

At  this  time  Mr.  Gresham  told  Senator-elect  Lane  and 
Governor  Morton  that  he  would  not  fight  in  a  servile  or 
domestic  war.  "Rather  than  that,"  he  wrote  me  from  Indi- 
anapolis at  that  time,  "the  sooner  the  North  and  South 
have  a  peaceable  separation  the  better."  In  this  he  was 
supported  by  many  of  the  younger  element.  This  ultima- 
tum of  the  younger  men,  among  whom  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
was  the  leader,  was  the  only  basis  Oliver  P.  Morton  ever 
had  for  making  the  charge,  as  he  afterwards  did,  that 
Mr.  Gresham  was  disloyal.  If  a  consideration  for  the 
whites  whose  misfortune  it  was  to  be  linked  with  the  bonds- 
men was  disloyalty,  then  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  always 
disloyal.  And  never  was  Mr.  Gresham  loyal  to  the  Re- 
publican organization  on  the  proposition  —  quoting  Mr. 
Lincoln's  own  words — "To  make  slavery  express  and 
irrevocable."  To  save  the  Union  he  would  not  make  that 
concession,  but  he  would  give  his  life's  blood  for  it. 

Then  it  was  that  the  line-up  became  sectional.  In  the 
last  days  of  February  and  the  first  days  of  March,  1861, 
the  Republicans  organized  the  territories  of  Colorado, 
Dakota,  and  Nebraska,  in  each  instance  —  as  has  already 
been  noted  —  copying  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  verbatim; 
certainly  not,  as  Mr.  Blaine  says,  to  placate  the  Seces- 
sionists. 

The  most  important  measure  before  the  Indiana  legis- 
lature was  the  Gresham  Military  Bill.  On  the  organization 
of  the  House,  Mr.  Gresham  had  been  made  chairman  of 
the  Military  Committee  and  had  been  given  by  Governor 
Lane  a  commission  as  colonel  on  the  Governor's  staff.  Un- 
der the  existing  law  the  military  officers  of  the  State  were 
elected  by  the  men.  It  was  manifest  the  officers  should  be 
appointed  by  the  Governor.  This  view  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
early  adopted  and  adhered  to,  although  he  had  incurred  the 
enmity  of  Governor  Morton  and  had  given  up  his  com- 
mission as  colonel  on  the  Governor's  staff.  The  opposition 
to  the  Gresham  Military  Bill  was  based  on  its  centralizing 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  137 

effect.  It  was  finally  passed  through  the  House  on  one  of 
the  last  days  of  the  session.  After  the  vote  had  been  taken, 
Representative  John  H.  Stotsenburgh  proposed  to  amend 
the  title  by  substituting  these  words:  "An  Act  Making 
Provision  for  the  Complete  Rout  of  the  Republican  Party 
at  the  Next  and  All  Succeeding  Popular  Elections."  He 
was  ruled  out  of  order.  But  the  bill  failed  to  become  a 
law,  as  it  did  not  pass  the  Senate. 

In  1 86 1,  J.  F.  D.  Lanier,  one  of  the  country's  ablest 
financiers,  and  his  partner,  R.  H.  Winslow,  under  the  firm 
name,  Winslow,  Lanier  &  Company  of  New  York,  were 
reorganizing  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne,  &  Chicago  Rail- 
road Company.  Mr.  Lanier  had  settled  at  Madison,  Ind- 
iana, at  an  early  day,  and  before  going  into  business  in 
New  York  had  been  the  president  of  the  Madison  Branch 
of  the  Indiana  State  Bank.  At  Mr.  Lanier's  instance,  and 
also  to  please  his  friend,  Samuel  Patterson  of  Jeffersonville, 
a  large  owner  in  the  Jeffersonville,  Madison  &  Indianapolis 
Railroad,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  helped  pass  the  legislation 
providing  for  the  reorganization  of  the  insolvent  railroad 
corporations  of  the  State.  These  acts  were  drawn  in  New 
York  by  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  and  the  construction  they  sub- 
sequently received  at  the  hands  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  will  be  interesting. 

In  the  debate  on  the  bill  to  abolish  the  State  printer, 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  said:  "When  the  gentleman  from 
La  Porte  comes  in  here  and  endorses  the  sentiment,  that 
'to  the  victor  belongs  the  spoils,'  he  endorses  a  doctrine 
that  I  cannot  endorse." 

At  the  election  of  the  trustees  who  were  clothed  with 
the  management  and  government  of  the  benevolent  insti- 
tutions of  the  State  —  they  then  were  elected  by  the 
members  of  the  two  houses  in  joint  session  —  Mr.  Gresham 
voted  against  his  party;  that  is,  he  voted  to  retain  the 
existing  board,  although  it  was  Democratic  in  politics.  A 
difference  of  temperament,  together  with  these  acts,  started 


138       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

a  breach  with  Governor  Morton  that  had  become  wide  by 
the  time  the  session  ended. 

Limited  as  the  regular  session  of  the  Indiana  legislature 
was  to  sixty  days,  my  husband  was  home  by  the  middle 
of  March,  although  he  had  remained  in  Indianapolis  a  few 
days  after  the  legislature  adjourned,  to  look  after  some 
cases  in  the  State  Supreme  Court  and  in  the  Federal  courts, 
and  also  to  consider  an  advantageous  proposition  to  form  a 
partnership  for  the  practice  of  law  in  Indianapolis  which 
had  been  offered  him  by  David  Macy.  But  for  the  events 
that  followed,  the  law  partnership  would  have  been  formed 
and  we  would  have  removed  to  Indianapolis.  He  told  me 
that  his  relations  with  Governor  Morton,  which  had  been 
cordial  and  friendly  at  the  beginning,  had  become  strained 
and  bitter,  and  that  as  a  result  he  had  given  up  his  com- 
mission as  a  colonel  on  the  Governor's  staff.  This  was 
most  agreeable  news  to  me,  for  if  there  was  to  be  war,  I 
felt  he  would  not  be  in  it.  But  when  Sumter  was  fired  on, 
my  fears  came  back.  I  knew  what  it  meant.  Wendell 
Phillips  was  the  first  man  to  mount  a  dry  goods  box  in  the 
streets  of  Boston  and  declare  that  the  Union  he  had  for 
years  labored  to  dissolve  must  be  preserved. 

Mr.  Lincoln  early  got  in  touch  with  the  Kentucky  Union 
leaders.  And  the  tenderness  and  coddling  he  showered  on 
them  all  during  the  Spring  and  the  dog  days  of  1861  is  in 
strong  contrast  to  the  part  he  took  in  1858,  in  "goading  the 
slaveholder  to  madness,"  —  although  he  did  not  put  it  in 
these  exact  words  —  as  part  of  his  plan  to  separate  Doug- 
las from  the  Southern  Democrats  or,  per  se,  the  slave- 
holder. I  am  not  saying  this  in  criticism  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
but  am  simply  recording  the  fact  that  he  was  big  enough  to 
throw  consistency  to  the  winds,  and  turn  tail  on  his  most 
cherished  and  lofty  sentiments.  He  became  a  Union  man 
per  se  —  determined  to  save  the  Union  with  or  without 
slavery.  That  he  *vas  sincere,  the  people  farther  south  and 
in  Virginia  became  convinced  when  it  was  too  late. 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  139 

Against  the  charge  that  their  position  was  insincere 
and  illogical,  the  Union  leaders  in  Kentucky  claimed  they 
certainly  saved  Kentucky  as  a  State  to  the  Union,  and  that 
the  pledges  they  made  to  the  Kentucky  slaveholders,  with 
Mr.  Lincoln's  consent,  were  in  good  faith,  although  they 
were  not  kept.  The  compensation  that  was  subsequently 
offered  by  the  government  to  the  Kentuckians  was  utterly 
inadequate.  And  before  the  war  was  over,  many  of  the 
good  Union  men  of  i86q,  1861,  and  1862  were  in  sympathy 
with  the  Confederate  government. 

In  his  inaugural  address  Mr.  Lincoln  modified  his  anti- 
slavery  views.  He  said  that  he  was  willing  that  what  was 
implied  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  should  by 
amendment  be  made  express  and  irrevocable:  namely,  "the 
right  of  one  man  to  hold  another  to  service"  or  slavery. 

These  words  were  very  different  from  the  language  of 
the  Republican  platform  to  which  Lincoln  had  referred 
George  D.  Prentice  the  year  before,  when  Mr.  Prentice 
urged  him  to  give  voice  to  his  conservative  sentiments. 
They  had  a  powerful  influence  in  Kentucky.  But  more 
potent  than  his  words  were  Mr.  Lincoln's  acts  in  actually 
enforcing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850.  And  never  was 
the  wisdom  of  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Webster  in  drafting 
and  passing  "that  infamous  law  that  made  man  the  catcher 
of  his  fellow  man"  better  attested  than  in  those  trying 
days  when  patriotic  men  were  holding  the  Border  States 
to  the  Union.1 

J.  Russell  Jones,  one  of  "the  Galena  gang"  and  one  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  "boys,"  was  one  of  Lincoln's  first  appoint- 
ees. Before  he  left  Springfield  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "Jones, 
I  will  appoint  you  United  States  marshal,  and  the  first 
thing  I  want  you  to  do  is  to  return  those  three  fugitive 
slaves  now  held  in  the  Cook  County  jail  in  Chicago  for 
safe  keeping,  pending  their  return  under  an  order  of  Judge 
Drummond,  to  their  owners,  citizens  of  Missouri.  Every 
attempt  Buchanan's  marshals  have  made  of  late  to  return 

1  See  pages  54  and  55. 


HO       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

a  fugitive  has  failed.  I  want  to  show  them  at  the  earliest 
moment  we  will  enforce  the  law." 

It  was  the  popular  belief  that  the  Buchanan  marshals 
had  connived  at  rescues. 

"I  think  I  was  the  first  man  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  in 
Illinois,"  said  Mr.  Jones,  "and  my  first  official  act  was  to 
remove  those  three  fugitives  to  Missouri.  I  made  my  ar- 
rangements for  a  special  train  from  Chicago  to  run  through 
the  large  towns  without  stopping,  and  for  a  ferry  boat  to 
meet  it  immediately  on  arriving  at  East  St.  Louis.  Judge 
Drummond  gave  us  a  clearance,  and  before  the  Abolition- 
ists knew  about  it,  I  had  delivered  the  three  slaves  to  their 
owners  in  St.  Louis.  All  of  which  was  duly  chronicled  in 
the  newspapers." 

It  was  acts  and  words  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  like  these  that 
contributed  to  the  election  of,  if  they  did  not  elect,  at  the 
special  election  in  Kentucky  on  the  20th  of  June,  nine 
Union  members  headed  by  Ex-Senator  John  J.  Crittenden, 
to  one  State's  Right  or  Secessionist,  to  the  special  session  of 
Congress  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  called  to  meet  July  4,  1861. 

April  24,  1 86 1,  the  Indiana  legislature  met  in  special 
session.  Governor  Morton  had  promptly  filled  Indiana's 
quota  of  troops  to  meet  Lincoln's  call  for  75,000  men,  issued 
after  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  most  important  work 
for  Indiana  was  a  new  military  law. 

The  first  letter  I  received  after  the  Indiana  legislature 
assembled  is  as  follows: 

Indianapolis,  Ind.,  April  25,  1861. 

We  organized  yesterday,  ignoring  party.  The  Democrats,  with- 
out a  single  exception,  are  for  the  government  and  war.  You 
can  have  no  idea  of  the  state  of  feeling  in  Indiana.  Military 
companies  are  coming  in  almost  every  hour,  and  being  sent  back 
home,  the  call  being  full.  We  could  raise  50,000  soldiers  in  thirty 
days  in  Indiana  alone. 

The  Anderson  Guards  arrived  last  night  and  went  into  camp 
this  morning.     They  were  not  here  in  time  to  get  into  the  service 


V    (y 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  141 

of  our  state,  and  are  stationed  here  as  a  reserve  guard.  They  are 
greatly  admired.  All  or  nearly  all  are  large,  stout  men,  and  well 
behaved.     Capt.  Judson  will  make  his  mark  as  a  military  man. 

The  South  has  reckoned  without  her  host  in  this  hellish  design 
of  breaking  up  the  Union.  They  never  dreamt  that  the  people 
would  rise  up  as  one  man  to  put  down  the  rebellion.  The  Rebels 
must  now  come  to  terms  or  meet  the  vengeance  of  an  outraged 
people.  There  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  final  result.  God  is 
with  the  just. 

We  will  be  here  but  a  short  time,  perhaps  a  week.  Horace 
HefTron,  our  Democratic  friend  from  Harrison  and  Washington, 
proposed  Cyrus  Allen,  the  Republican  speaker  at  the  last  session, 
and  he  was  unanimously  elected. 

A  few  days  later,  I  received  the  following : 

Indianapolis,  April  28,  1861. 

This  city  is  still  crowded  with  people.  There  are  now  some 
10,000  soldiers  here,  to  say  nothing  of  the  immense  throng  of 
visitors,  and  in  all  that  vast  throng,  there  is  but  one  sentiment  — 
the  government  must  be  sustained.  Republicans  and  Democrats  ■ 
are  a  unit  on  this  question.  You  may  think  this  might  have 
been  avoided,  that  war  ought  not  to  curse  this  happy  land,  but 
then  you  must  '00k  at  the  question  in  all  its  bearings.  It  is  better 
to  have  war  for  one  year  than  anarchy  and  revolution  for  fifty 
years.  If  the  government  should  suffer  the  Rebels  to  go  on  with 
their  work  with  impunity,  there  would  be  no  end  to  it  and  in  a 
short  time  we  would  be  without  any  law  or  order.  We  must  now 
teach  the  Secessionists  a  lesson.  They  must  be  made  to  know 
that  they  cannot  attack  the  government  without  suffering  for  their 
rebellion.  It  is  all  bosh  and  nonsense  to  talk  about  the  North 
making  war  on  the  South.  The  South  rebelled  against  the  laws 
and  makes  war  on  the  government.  I  was  talking  this  evening 
with  a  very  sensible  gentleman  who  has  just  been  run  out  of 
the  South.  He  left  Atlanta,  Georgia,  last  week  and  his  only  crime 
was  that  of  being  a  Union  man.  He  was  a  merchant  in  Atlanta 
and  a  very  wealthy  man.1  He  says  there  is  a  reign  of  terror 
throughout  the  seceded  states,  that  the  people  are  not  consulted, 
but  the  leaders  of  rebellion  do  just  as  they  please.  He  came 
North  in  company  with  sixty-odd  others,  all  wealthy  men.     That 

iSee  page  7;  also  page  254. 

10 


142        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

affords  some  idea  of  the  practical  workings  of  secession.  The 
South  must  be  ruined.  There  are  18,000,000  whites  in  the  North 
and  6,000,000  whites  in  the  entire  South.  What  can  6,000,000 
do  in  fighting  the  united  North  and  keeping  down  their  negroes  ? 
They  have  been  led  to  believe  that  the  North  would  not  sustain 
the  government.  I  think  the  difficulty  will  be  settled  soon.  God 
knows  we  do  not  want  to  destroy  our  Southern  brethren,  but  they 
should  remember  that  it  is  their  duty  as  good  citizens  to  respect 
the  laws.  They  have  had  their  own  way  too  long.  Slavery 
makes  men  generous,  but  it  also  makes  them  tyrannical  and 
overbearing. 

I  have  been  laboring  hard  ever  since  I  came  here.  The  mili- 
tary committee,  of  which  I  am  chairman,  has  nearly  all  the  work 
of  the  whole  legislature  before  it.  We  hope  to  be  relieved  soon. 
I  fear  we  will  be  kept  here  longer  than  I  thought  when  I  wrote 
you  before.  If  we  do  not  adjourn  this  week,  I  will  try  and  come 
home  Saturday  if  my  engagements  will  permit.   .    .    . 

Affectionately  yours, 

W.  Q.  Gresham. 

The  opposition  to  vesting  in  the  Governor  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  officers  of  the  regiments  and  the  centralizing 
features  of  the  Gresham  Military  Bill  prolonged  the  session. 
The  opposition  was  not  confined  to  the  Democrats.  Lead- 
ing Republicans  were  opposed  to  the  measure  as  undemo- 
cratic and  autocratic.  Besides,  many  Republicans  were 
disposed  to  let  their  judgment  be  guided  by  their  feelings 
of  resentment  towards  Governor  Morton. 

Horace  Bell  had  returned  from  his  Mexican  experiences 
under  Juarez,  and  when  the  legislature  met,  was  in  Camp 
Morton,  the  rendezvous  for  the  volunteer  troops  at  Indian- 
apolis, drilling  the  new  companies  as  they  came  in.  He  was 
then  in  the  service  of  the  National  government.  There  were 
sessions  of  the  military  committees,  both  of  the  Senate  and 
of  the  House,  as  the  bill  had  to  be  redrafted  and  repassed 
in  the  House.  Bell  was  brought  before  these  committees  as 
a  witness  of  recent  experience  who  had  served  in  Mexico  and 
under  Walker  in  the  Nicaraguan  War.     In  the  Nicaraguan 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  143 

War  he  had  met  some  of  the  ablest  military  men  in  the 
world,  it  was  claimed.  He  had  many  works  on  military 
affairs  and  on  the  organization  of  armies.  Reinforced  by 
Bell's  experience,  his  treatise  on  military  affairs,  and  the  tes- 
timony of  the  best  military  men  in  the  State  —  among  them 
Lew  Wallace,  Major  Worth,  an  officer  of  the  United  States 
Army,  stationed  at  Indianapolis,  and  especially  Archibald 
Forbes'  works  on  that  subject— Walter  Q.  Gresham,  with 
the  aid  of  certain  Democrats,  put  through  the  House  again 
the  bill  he  had  drafted  and  passed  at  the  regular  session, 
vesting  the  appointment  of  the  field  and  line  officers  of  all 
regiments  in  the  hands  of  the  Governor,  and  so  far  as  the 
law  itself  was  concerned,  it  was  made  plain  that  politics  and 
jealousies  should  be  kept  out  of  the  military  organization. 
One  Republican  voted  against  the  bill  because  it  would 
make  the  Governor  a  czar.  Simeon  K.  Wolf,  our  fellow- 
townsman,  represented  Harrison  County  and  two  adjoin- 
ing counties,  Washington  and  Crawford,  in  the  Senate. 
Through  Mr.  Wolf  the  necessary  Democratic  aid  was  se- 
cured to  put  the  bill  through  the  Senate. 

One  million  of  money  was  voted  and  the  Governor  was 
authorized  to  borrow  $3,000,000  on  the  bonds  of  the  State 
for  the  purpose  of  organizing  the  militia  of  the  State. 

My  husband  also  drafted,  and  succeeded  in  getting 
passed,  what  was  known  as  his  Home  Guard  Bill,  which 
authorized  the  citizens  of  a  county  to  organize  themselves 
into  companies  and  elect  their  own  officers.  This  was 
intended  to  benefit  the  river  counties. 

There  was  much  dissatisfaction  with  Governor  Morton 
because  of  some  of  the  men  he  commissioned.  Represen- 
tative Bingham  of  Jennings  County,  in  a  resolution  which 
did  not  pass,  and  a  speech  in  support  of  it,  severely  criti- 
cized Governor  Morton  for  appointing  Horace  Heffron 
major  of  the  Thirteenth  Regiment.  Mr.  Heffron  never 
accepted  the  appointment.  He  was  known  to  be  disloyal, 
and  he  subsequently  accepted  a  commission  from  Jefferson 


144       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Davis  in  the  Confederate  Army,  though  he  never  served 
south  of  the  Ohio  River.  Governor  Morton  claimed  that 
it  was  my  husband  who  instigated  Bingham  to  introduce 
this  resolution  and  make  the  attack.  My  husband  replied 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  resolution  being  introduced,  as 
he  was  absent  from  the  House  at  the  time;  ''but,"  he  said, 
"if  I  had  been  there,  I  would  have  supported  it  by  speech 
and  vote."  Bingham  was  another  man  who  never  resumed 
cordial  relations  with  the  Governor,  but,  as  he  was  young, 
in  obedience  to  the  demand  of  the  old  men  Governor  Mor- 
ton commissioned  him  the  same  as  he  did  Gresham,  against 
his  will. 

These  young  men  used  their  power  unsparingly  in  inves- 
tigating all  the  acts  of  the  Governor,  especially  those  relat- 
ing to  supplies  furnished  by  the  quartermaster-general  to 
the  soldiers.  The  Governor  was  compelled  to  give  a  strict 
account  of  the  money  placed  at  his  disposal  at  the  regular 
session,  to  be  used  as  a  contingent  fund  in  purchasing  sup- 
plies and  arms. 

The  special  session  ended  June  2,  and  with  it  all  the 
friendly  relations  that  had  ever  existed  between  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  and  the  Governor.  His  colleagues,  Veatch  and 
Moody,  in  the  House,  and  Senator  Miller,  in  the  Senate, 
and  others,  were  given  command  of  regiments,  while  he  was 
denied  any  commission  at  all,  although  he  tendered  his 
services  and  demanded,  as  he  claimed  was  his  right,  a 
colonel's  commission.  He  then  asked  for  a  commission 
in  the  lower  grades,  which  was  refused.  There  were  high 
words  and  the  Governor  was  denounced  to  his  face  for  vent- 
ing his  personal  feelings  when  the  other  had  sacrificed  his 
for  the  good  of  the  cause.  Horace  Bell  was  present  at  the 
last  meeting  of  the  Governor  and  the  chairman  of  the  Mili- 
tary Committee  of  the  House,  and,  of  course,  in  Bell's  ver- 
sion and  telling  of  it,  Mr.  Gresham  did  not  suffer. 

My  husband  made  a  number  of  trips  home  during  the 
extra  session  to  look  after  his  law  business.     On  these  visits 


INDIANA    PREPARES    FOR    WAR  145 

he  brought  a  great  many  lawsuits,  all  of  which  he  after- 
wards turned  over  to  Mr.  Slaughter.  He  remained  at 
Indianapolis  almost  a  week  after  the  legislature  adjourned, 
to  argue  in  the  Supreme  Court  the  steamboat  cases  that  had 
gone  there  from  Crawford  County. 


CHAPTER  X 
OPENING   OF  THE   WAR 


WALTER  Q.   GRESHAM  ENLISTS  AS  A  PRIVATE KENTUCKY 

LEGISLATURE    ADJOURNS REBEL   VICTORY    AT    BULL    RUN 

CRITTENDEN    RESOLUTIONS    PUT    THROUGH    CONGRESS WAR 

TO     PRESERVE     THE     UNION KENTUCKY     STAYS     WITH     THE 

NORTH END      OF      NEUTRALITY GRESHAM      COMMISSIONED 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL    OF    THIRTY-EIGHTH    INDIANA    VOLUN- 
TEERS  LOUISVILLE   "COURIER"   SUPPRESSED WAR  BEGUN 

BUCKNER     INVADES     KENTUCKY WHY     HE     DID     NOT     GO 

TO     LOUISVILLE GRESHAM     MEETS      SHERMAN KENTUCKY 

LEGISLATURE    CALLS    FOR   40,000    SOLDIERS LETTERS    FROM 

KENTUCKY     CAMPS GRESHAM     STUDIES     HARD ON    PICKET 

DUTY SUFFERING    OF    WOMEN    AT    HOME GRESHAM    TEN- 
DERED   COLONELCY    OF    FIFTY-THIRD    INDIANA    REGIMENT. 

TT7 ALTER  Q.  GRESHAM  came  home  very  much  disap- 
*  »  pointed  and  outraged  that  the  Governor  had  refused 
him  a  commission,  while  on  the  other  hand  I  was  delighted, 
as  I  felt  that  this  might  keep  him  out  of  service.  But  he 
bought  books  on  military  tactics  and  science,  and  imme- 
diately was  instrumental  in  the  organizing  of  a  company, 
in  which  he  enlisted  as  a  private.  It  drilled  at  night  in 
Cory  don  during  the  months  of  June  and  July. 

Still,  like  many  others,  I  did  not  despair  of  a  peaceable 
settlement  of  the  trouble.  I  hoped  there  would  be  no  real 
need  for  volunteers.  With  a  woman's  instinct,  I  knew  what 
war  would  be  for  me.  My  prayers  were  for  peace.  I  exacted 
pledges  from  my  husband  which  I  knew  he  could  not  keep 
should  the  actual  contest  come.  I  got  no  comfort  in  the 
assertion  of  my  father  that  one  Southern  man  would  be 
equal  to  five  or  six  Yankees,  so  that  when  it  came  to  fighting 

146 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  147 

there  would  be  but  little  of  it.  My  father  frequently  said 
to  my  husband,  "You  will  not  fight  when  the  time  comes, 
because  it  will  be  useless.  You  will  let  the  South  go." 
My  father  did  not  see,  and  this  was  the  mistake  of  the 
Southern  leaders,  that  it  was  a  conviction  that  the  Union 
should  be  preserved,  and  a  question  of  morals,  with  such 
men  as  my  husband.  In  the  discussions  with  my  father, 
I  amused  him  when  I  told  him  that,  as  my  native  State 
was  neutral,  I  would  be  a  neutral ;  and  I  angered  him  when 
I  asked  him  why  it  was,  if  the  Secessionists  believed  in 
"State's  Rights,"  they  did  not  let  Kentucky  alone.  I 
thought  if  both  sides  would  leave  Kentucky  alone,  she 
would  somehow  settle  the  controversy. 

Meantime  the  Kentucky  legislature,  which  had  been 
meeting  and  adjourning  at  intervals  since  January  17, 
finally  adjourned  sine  die.  But  before  doing  so  it  provided 
by  a  special  statute  that  its  successor,  which  was  to  be 
elected  at  the  regular  semi-annual  election  on  the  4th  of 
August  following,  and  which,  according  to  the  general  law, 
would  not  meet  until  January,  1862,  should  convene  the 
first  of  September,  1861.  The  dissolving  body  two  years 
before  had  elected  John  C.  Breckenridge  to  the  United 
States  Senate.  The  shuttle-cock  of  faction  under  the  guise 
of  neutrality,  it  had  been  first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the 
other.  Each  side  wanted  an  early  meeting  of  the  new 
legislature  because  each  anticipated  an  easy  victory  at 
the  polls.  Mr.  Lincoln's  "House  Divided  against  Itself" 
speech,  the  Secessionists  believed,  would  give  them  the 
State.  The  Union  members  believed  that  in  providing  for 
the  organization  of  the  Home  Guards  they  would  meet  or 
neutralize  the  work  of  General  Simon  Bolivar  Buckner,  who 
was  then  marshaling  the  Kentucky  militia. 

The  Rebel  victory  at  Bull  Run,  July  21,  brought  home 
to  both  sides  the  conviction  that  it  was  to  be  a  finish  fight. 
When  it  came  to  practical  politics,  Abraham  Lincoln  had 
them  all  beaten.     He  not  only  "played  both  ends"  but 


148       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

also  ' '  the  middle. ' '  On  July  2  2  the  same  John  J.  Crittenden 
we  have  so  often  quoted,  then  a  Union  member  of  the 
House  from  Kentucky,  put  through  Congress,  with  Mr. 
Lincoln's  approval,  a  series  of  resolutions:  "That  Congress, 
banishing  all  the  feelings  of  mere  passion  or  resentment, 
will  recollect  only  its  duty  to  the  whole  country;  that  the 
war  is  not  waged  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any 
purpose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  or  the  overthrowing  or 
interfering  with  the  rights  or  established  institutions  of  the 
seceding  states,  but  to  defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy 
of  the  Constitution,  and  preserve  the  Union  with  all  the 
dignity,  equality,  and  rights  of  the  several  states  unim- 
paired, and  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are  accomplished, 
the  war  ought  to  cease."  They  passed  the  House  with  only 
five  dissenting  votes,  and  the  Senate,  where  they  were  in- 
troduced by  Andrew  Johnson,  with  only  two  votes  in  the 
negative.  Charles  Sumner,  in  the  Senate,  and  Thaddeus 
Stevens  and  Owen  Lovejoy,  in  the  House,  could  not  swal- 
low them,  but  they  dared  not  vote  against  them;  for 
Wendell  Phillips,  as  the  Massachusetts  troops  were  going 
to  the  front,  after  taking  back  all  the  harsh  and  unkind 
things  he  had  said  for  years  about  his  native  State,  was 
uttering  patriotic  sentiments  in  terms  as  glowing  as  any 
that  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  Daniel  Webster.  Not  a 
word  then  about  "those  clients  who  stood  dumb  within 
the  law."1 

A  year  later,  however,  when  the  Union  armies  were  in 
the  heart  of  Dixie,  Phillips  began  to  make  life  a  burden  for 
Mr.  Lincoln  about  abolition.  As  a  woman,  I  feel  that  the 
pledges  which  were  made  to  the  Kentuckians  about  com- 
pensation should  have  been  liberally  kept  by  the  Govern- 
ment. Many  refined  and  cultured  Kentucky  women  were 
impoverished  because  of  the  loyalty  of  their  fathers  and 
husbands  and  brothers  in  i860  and  1861.  John  J.  Critten- 
den died  a  broken  and  disappointed  but  not  a  bitter  man. 

igee  pfige  205. 


OPENINGOFTHEWAR  149 

The  adoption  of  the  Crittenden  resolutions  was  the 
trump  card  in  Kentucky.  Most  of  the  Kentucky  slave- 
holders, on  the  4th  of  August,  1861,  sided  with  the  Union, 
and  a  decided  majority  of  the  members  that  day  elected 
were  Union  men.  But  it  was  really  a  pro-slavery  legislature. 
Its  first  act  was  to  declare  ' '  that  no  citizen  shall  be  molested 
on  account  of  his  political  opinions;  that  no  citizen's  prop- 
erty shall  be  taken  or  confiscated  because  of  such  opinions 
[this  was  to  meet  the  segregation  acts  of  the  Confederate 
Congress,  confiscating  the  property  of  those  who  gave  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  enemy],  nor  shall  any  slave  be  set  free  by 
any  military  commander.' " 

This  4th  of  August  election  was  the  end  of  " neutrality." 
Instead  of  its  operating  as  many  believed  and  hoped  for, 
and  I  was  of  that  number,  there  was  soon  a  forward  move- 
ment all  along  the  line.  To  my  father,  who  was  still 
declaring  the  Abolitionists  would  not  fight,  my  husband 
said,  "You  will  soon  be  undeceived."  But  even  then  I 
was  not  prepared  for  the  shock  that  came  a  few  days  later 
when  my  husband  showed  me  a  commission  he  had  just  re- 
ceived as  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Indiana,  v  ^ 
which  was  to  be  organized  shortly  at  Camp  Noble  in  New 
Albany.  Samuel  J.  Wright  and  others  had  protested  to 
Governor  Morton  against  sending  commissions  to  "cripples 
and  invalids  and  traitors, ' '  to  men  who  could  not  and  would 
not  accept,  while  the  only  man  Harrison  County  had  fit  to 
command  was  ignored.  Mr.  Wright  was  an  enrolling  officer 
and  on  more  than  one  occasion  his  strong  and  picturesque 
language  "riled"  Indiana's  great  War  Governor. 

I  was  no  Spartan.  I  was  unlike  many  women  who  at 
that  time  urged  their  husbands  and  brothers  to  go  forth 
for  their  country.  Instinctively  I  felt  the  suffering  that 
must  come  on  the  innocent,  and  my  experience  justified  all 
my  fears.  But  the  suffering  and  anxiety  that  I  afterwards 
went  through  was  nothing  compared  to  what  other  women 
endured  and  suffered,   both  North  and  South.     For  this 


150      LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

reason,  I  have  always  protested  against  war  as  a  means 
of  settling  national  differences.  It  is  often  corrupting  to 
nations  as  well  as  to  men  and  women.  Possibly  my 
father's  views  made  it  harder  for  me  than  for  most  women, 
and  made  me  see  more  clearly  into  the  future.  Had  he 
been  a  younger  man,  I  have  no  doubt  he  would  have  gone 
to  the  Confederacy.  He  used  his  influence  with  my  brother 
to  keep  him  from  the  Union  army,  even  after  Governor 
Morton  had  sent  him  a  commission. 

Colonel  Benjamin  F.  Scribner,  a  veteran  of  the  Mexi- 
can War,  had  been  commissioned  Colonel  of  the  Thirty- 
eighth  Indiana.  Daniel  G.  Griffin,  my  father's  adopted 
son,  then  in  the  employ  of  the  Louisville,  New  Albany  & 
Chicago  Railroad  Company,  and  several  years  removed 
from  my  father's  influence,  went  out  as  adjutant  of  the 
regiment.  He  was  then  as  he  had  been  for  a  long  time, 
Captain  of  the  Anderson  Rifles,  a  crack  local  military 
organization  that  had  reorganized  as  one  of  the  two  home 
guard  companies  apportioned  to  New  Albany  under  the  Gres- 
ham  Home  Guard  Bill.  The  other  New  Albany  company 
was  the  Sanderson  Guards.  So  suddenly  was  the  Thirty- 
eighth  organized  that,  at  the  conclusion  one  evening  of  his 
company  drill,  Captain  Griffin  had  time  only  to  send  a 
short  note  to  a  young  lady,  Miss  Mary  Compton,  whom 
he  was  to  marry,  stating  that,  instead  of  calling  on  her,  he 
would  enlist  that  night  and  at  once  take  part  in  the  or- 
ganization of  a  new  regiment.  Many  of  the  officers  of 
the  Twenty-third  Indiana,  then  at  Camp  Noble  and  well 
along  in  organization,  had  graduated  from  Dan  Griffin's 
Anderson  Rifles.  William  L.  Sanderson,  a  veteran  of  the 
Mexican  War,  and  one  of  New  Albany's  most  respected 
and  dignified  citizens,  was  the  Colonel,  and  George  S. 
Babbitt,1  Dan  Griffin's  special  friend  and  a  graduate  of  the 
Anderson  Rifles,  was  one  of  its  captains.  Daniel  Griffin's 
military  training  at  the  Kentucky  Military  Institute  was 

ISee  pages  242,  282,  294-5,  306  and  319. 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  151 

invaluable  at  that  time  to  the  Union  cause.  Small  in 
stature,  he  was  par  excellence  a  drillmaster.  The  Home 
Guard  companies  had  been  organized  all  over  southern 
Indiana.  On  July  4  there  was  a  grand  review  and  prize 
drill  at  Camp  Noble.  With  half  of  his  old  men  in  other 
organizations  as  officers,  Dan  Griffin  with  the  Anderson 
Rifles  took  the  first  prize,  and  then  showed  the  veteran 
officers  of  the  Mexican  War  how  to  handle  a  battalion 
and  a  regiment. 

"Mollie"  Compton  was  greatly  delighted  at  all  this. 
A  cheery,  lighthearted  girl,  she  had  many  bouts  with  my 
father  because  he  could  not  keep  the  boy  he  raised  and 
his  son-in-law  out  of  the  Union  army.  Doctor  Payne,  a 
bitter  Secessionist,  who  married  my  eldest  sister,  went  out 
as  the  surgeon  of  one  of  the  southern  Illinois  regiments. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  had  pulled  him  into  line.  My  father 
confided  to  Miss  Compton  that  while  he  did  not  have  much 
influence  with  the  Yankee  members  of  his  family,  he  was 
glad  they  were  good  officers.  What  to  me  was  a  reality 
from  the  start — that  war  was  hell  —  Mollie  lived  to  learn. 
She  married  Dan  Griffin  on  one  of  his  short  furloughs  home, 
and  then  before  the  end  of  the  war  soothed  his  last  hours 
as  a  brevet  brigadier-general  of  volunteers.  In  those  form- 
ative days  my  father  was  in  the  commission  business  with 
headquarters  at  7th  and  Main  Streets,  Louisville.  He 
never  lowered  his  colors,  but  in  1862  retired  from  business, 
rather  than  "become  a  Union  man  and  make  lots  of  money 
as  an  army  contractor." 

Part  of  the  men  of  the  Thirty-eighth  were  without 
arms  until  they  started  for  Kentucky.  At  Camp  Noble 
I  saw  men  of  the  regiment  drilled  in  company  move- 
ments without  arms  and  in  some  cases  carrying  sticks  for 
guns.  On  the  21st  day  of  August  Colonel  Scribner  wired  to 
the  War  Department,  and  to  Governor  Morton,  the  follow- 
ing dispatch:  "I  have  a  regiment  of  men  nearly  ready  for 
service;   do  you  want  them?" 


152       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Within  an  hour  he  received  the  following  answer  from 
Govenor  Morton :  "You  are  accepted.  Report  to  Adjutant- 
General  Noble  at  Indianapolis." 

Camp  Noble  was  on  the  northeastern  outskirts  of  New 
Albany,  in  what  was  known  as  the  State  Fair  Grounds. 
Within  two  miles  of  Camp  Noble  was  Camp  Joe  Holt, 
which  had  been  established  by  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  on 
land  that  belonged  to  Blanton  Duncan  of  Louisville.  This 
land  was  in  the  original  grant  of  the  United  States  to 
George  Rogers  Clark  and  his  soldiers  and  lay  about  a  mile 
down  the  river  from  the  State  Prison,  which  was  at  the 
western  limits  of  Jeffersonville,  just  across  the  river  from 
Louisville.  The  site  was  selected  partly  because  of  its 
easy  access  from  Louisville,  and  also  because,  some  two 
months  before,  in  defiance  of  Kentucky  neutrality,  Blanton 
Duncan,  its  owner,  had  led  a  regiment  of  Kentuckians  to 
the  Confederacy. 

Rousseau,  afterwards  a  Union  general,  was  a  Louis- 
ville lawyer  who  had  seen  service  in  the  Mexican  War  at  a 
time  when  he  was  a  citizen  of  Indiana.  As  a  member  of 
the  legislature  of  Kentucky,  which  had  just  adjourned, 
he  had  resisted  secession.  His  idea  was  that  it  would  be 
observing  Kentucky  neutrality  to  establish  the  camp  on 
the  Indiana  side  and  at  the  same  time  get  ready  for  the 
emergency  that  would  demand  troops.  Another  so-called 
Kentucky  recruiting  station,  Camp  Clay,  was  established 
opposite  Cincinnati,  about  the  time  Camp  Joe  Holt  was  es- 
tablished. Most  of  Rousseau's  officers  were  Kentuckians, 
but  his  men  were  recruited  from  the  slums  of  Louisville, 
among  the  deck-hands  of  the  steamboats,  and  from  Indiana 
volunteers.  It  was  on  July  i  that  Rousseau  established 
his  camp.  Of  course  Adjutant-General  Buckner  of  Ken- 
tucky had  no  hand  in  it.  The  tents  were  made  in  New 
Albany  by  Wm.  A.  Daily  and  were  paid  for  by  the  National 
government,  which  also  furnished  the  arms.  At  first  the 
organization  was  called  the  "Louisville  Legion"  and  Stone's 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  153 

Battery;  later,  the  Second  Kentucky  Cavalry,  the  Fifth 
Kentucky  Infantry,  and  Stone's  Indiana  Battery.  The 
young,  active  Kentuckians  were  not  yet  ready  to  enlist. 
Several  months  later  they  did.  But  in  the  Summer  of  1861 
it  is  true,  as  General  Sherman  said,  that  most  of  the  act- 
ive young  men  were  inclined  to  the  Confederacy  or  were 
noncommittal.  On  July  12,  when  he  predicted  he  would 
have  1,500  men  in  Camp  Joe  Holt,  General  Rousseau  could 
count  only  800. 

While  I  was  never  in  Camp  Joe  Holt,  I  spent  many  days 
at  Camp  Noble,  where  I  ate  the  soldiers'  fare,  drank  coffee 
out  of  a  tin  cup,  heard  the  conversation  of  the  officers  as 
they  talked  of  visits  to  Camp  Joe  Holt,  and  saw  some  of 
the  Kentucky  officers  who  came  to  Camp  Noble.  Many 
of  the  New  Albany  people  visited  Camp  Joe  Holt  to  see 
the  dress  parade.  Enough  time  had  elasped  since  its 
establishment  to  make  the  Rousseau  regiments  proficient 
in  drills.  Among  the  visitors  who  went  to  see  the  Ken- 
tuckians drill  were  the  New  Albany  young  ladies,  among 
whom  Mollie  Compton  was  a  leader.  Then  she  would 
come  back  to  Camp  Noble  and  tell  Dan  Griffin  how  much 
better  drilled  and  armed  the  Kentuckians  were  than  the 
Thirty-eighth.  One  of  the  results  of  these  visits  to  Camp 
Joe  Holt  was  a  number  of  "matches"  followed  by  marriage. 

It  was  after  the  Kentucky  election  on  August  4  that 
President  Lincoln  authorized  Lieutenant  Nelson  of  the 
navy  to  arm  a  camp  that  was  organizing  at  Camp  Dick 
Robinson,  near  Danville,  Kentucky,  and  made  his  cele- 
brated answer  to  Governor  Magoffin's  protest  against  this 
violation  of  the  neutrality  of  Kentucky,  that  "it  did  not 
seem  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  people 
of  Kentucky  for  the  force  to  remain  at  Camp  Dick  Robin- 
son." At  the  same  time  the  Governor  wrote  to  Jefferson 
Davis,  the  President  of  the  Confederacy,  that  while  he  did 
not  fear  the  massing  of  so  many  troops  on  the  Kentucky 
border  on  the  south,  yet  it  created  uneasiness  in  the  minds 


154         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  many.  Mr.  Davis  answered  under  date  of  August  28 
that  the  purpose  of  the  concentration  of  the  troops  on  the 
Tennessee  border  was  to  be  in  readiness  to  repel  the  in- 
vasion of  that  State  by  the  Union  forces,  and  that  the  Con- 
federacy would  respect  Kentucky's  neutrality  so  long  as 
she  herself  maintained  it. 

Meanwhile  the  Kentucky  State  Guard  under  Adjutant- 
General  Buckner  was  concentrating  at  Camp  Boone,  Ten- 
nessee. They  became  the  Second,  Fourth,  and  Fifth  Ken- 
tucky regiments  of  the  Confederate  army;  and  General 
Buckner,  as  a  brigadier-general  in  the  Confederate  army, 
was  put  in  command  at  Camp  Boone. 

The  plan  of  the  Confederates  was  to  claim  that  the 
neutrality  of  the  State  had  been  violated  by  the  camp  at 
Dick  Robinson,  and  to  invade  the  State  all  along  the  line 
and  call  the  Secessionists  to  arms.  Governor  Magoffin 
was  in  the  plan,  as  were  many  other  leading  men,  some 
secretly,  others  openly.  Among  those  working  in  secret 
was  George  D.  Prentice. 

September  3  the  Confederate  General  Polk,  late  a  bishop 
in  the  Episcopal  Church  South,  occupied  Columbus.  Gen- 
eral Grant  immediately  took  possession  of  Paducah.  On 
the  15th  of  September  Buckner  moved  up  to  Bowling  Green, 
and  two  days  later  part  of  his  forces  were  within  fifty  miles 
of  Louisville. 

At  Bowling  Green,  General  Buckner  issued  a  proclamation 
which  was  published  in  all  the  Louisville  newspapers,  to  the 
effect  that  he  came  at  the  head  of  Kentucky  troops  to  pre- 
serve Kentucky  neutrality,  and  as  soon  as  that  was  re- 
established he  would  retire  from  the  State.  The  Courier 
was  teeming  with  sedition  and  secession,  while  Prentice  in 
the  Journal  was  deploring  the  inertia  and  supineness  that 
prevailed.  "Not  a  man  has  volunteered,  the  Governor 
and  city  authorities  are  doing  nothing.  All  an  enemy  has 
to  do  is  to  walk  in,  hang  his  hat  up,  and  take  possession  of 
the  mansion."     All  of  which  duly  reached  Buckner's  camp. 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  155 

In  the  event  that  Buckner  reached  Louisville,  aside  from 
all  the  circumstances  and  Prentice's  declaration  that  when 
it  came  to  a  war  for  the  subjugation  of  the  seceding  States, 
Kentucky  should  take  her  stand  with  the  South,  I  have 
Henry  Watterson's  statement  that  Prentice  was  prepared 
to  welcome  Buckner  to  the  city  by  running  up  the  Stars  and 
Bars  over  the  Journal  building. 

And  why  did  not  Buckner  come  ?  The  answer  is  in  what 
had  taken  place  at  Camp  Noble  and  Camp  Joe  Holt. 

On  the  1 8th  of  September  the  Kentucky  legislature,  after 
General  Pope  had  ignored  its  request  of  September  11  to 
retire  from  the  State,  requested  General  Robert  Anderson, 
the  Federal  commander  and  a  "native"  Kentuckian,  to  take 
instant  command,  with  authority  and  power  from  the  com- 
monwealth to  call  out  a  volunteer  force  in  Kentucky  for  the 
purpose  of  repelling  the  invaders." 

The  same  day  the  Louisville  Courier  was  suppressed 
because  it  was  a  "Rebel  sheet,"  as  the  government  of  the 
United  States  expressed  it.  It  was  afterwards  published 
from  Bowling  Green  and  Nashville  while  those  places  were 
occupied  by  the  Confederate  army.  My  father  took  it 
while  it  was  published  from  these  places.  He  would  bring 
it  to  me,  with  glowing  accounts  of  the  success  of  the  Con- 
federate army.  It  greatly  disturbed  and  distressed  me,  so 
one  day  I  told  him  he  must  remember  my  husband  was  in 
the  "Yankee"  army,  and  that  I  could  not  stand  the  discus- 
sions we  were  having  and  could  not  listen  to  the  news  he  was 
bringing  me.  He  said  I  was  right,  and  that  was  the  last  I 
heard  of  the  Courier  until  after  the  close  of  the  war,  when 
it  appeared  again  in  Louisville  with  Simon  Bolivar  Buckner 
as  the  editor.  So  it  must  not  be  understood  that  Buckner 
never  got  to  Louisville. 

General  Sherman,  in  his  "Memoirs,"  does  not  make  plain 
the  day  that  Rousseau's  regiments  crossed  the  river  and 
advanced  south  to  meet  "the  sudden  and  unexpected  inva- 
sion of  Kentucky  by  Buckner. ' '     He  states  that  on  the  order 


1$6      LIFE    OP    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  General  Anderson  he  went  over  to  Jeffersonville  and  in 
an  hour  had  the  regiments  on  the  march  to  the  ferry,  and 
that  they  went  thence  that  night  by  rail  to  Lebanon  Junc- 
tion. He  also  states  that  James  Guthrie  of  the  Peace 
Conference,  the  president  of  the  Louisville  &  Nashville 
Railroad,  arranged  for  the  special  train  which  carried  the 
Rousseau  brigade  to  Lebanon  Junction.  One  of  the  stories 
of  the  times  was  that  the  Rousseau  Louisville  Legion  and 
Stone's  Battery  crossed  the  river  to  Louisville,  on  the 
1 8th  of  September;  that  the  cavalry  regiment  marched  to 
Lebanon  Junction,  while  the  infantry  and  the  battery  went 
at  night  by  train  to  the  same  point. 

The  Thirty-eighth  Indiana  was  mustered  into  the  serv- 
ice of  the  United  States  government  on  the  18th  of  Septem- 
ber. It  left  the  camp  on  the  afternoon  of  the  21st,  Satur- 
day, and  as  the  men  marched  through  the  streets  of  New 
Albany  they  were  met  by  wagons  from  the  Jeflersonville 
Penitentiary  carrying  arms  for  those  who  had  not  yet  been 
supplied,  and  knapsacks  for  the  entire  regiment.  They 
were  without  cartridge  boxes,  but  at  Louisville  ammunition 
was  issued  to  them,  which  they  carried  in  their  pockets. 
The  excitement  was  great  as  they  went  through  Louisville. 
James  Guthrie  had  arranged  for  a  freight  train  on  the  Louis- 
ville &  Nashville  Railroad,  and  they  went  that  night  to 
Lebanon  Junction. 

In  a  few  words,  in  a  letter  written  home  at  this  time,  in 
pencil,  my  husband  pictures  the  rapid,  exhausting  march : 

Camp  Sherman, 
September  24,  1861 
We  left  Louisville  Saturday  night  about  10  o'clock  and  worked 
our  way  cautiously  to  Lebanon  Junction,  arriving  there  about 
7  a.m.  Sunday.  We  halted  a  few  hours,  and  then  took  up  our 
March  for  Elizabethtown,  where  we  arrived  about  sunset  after 
a  very  fatiguing  march.  We  crossed  Rolling  Fork  where  the 
bridge  was  burnt,  the  water  being  nearly  up  to  our  shoulders. 
The  boys  plunged  in  with  a  will. 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  i$7 

Our  object  in  moving  on  so  rapidly  was  to  get  to  Elizabeth- 
town  before  the  Rebels,  which  we  did.  We  encamped  for  the 
night,  sleeping  on  the  ground,  and  yesterday  morning  came  out 
here,  where  we  have  stopped  to  meet  the  enemy.  Our  baggage 
is  all  back  at  the  Junction,  but  we  expect  it  to-day.  I  have  not 
had  my  clothes  off  since  I  left  New  Albany,  and  I  never  felt 
better  in  my  life. 

We  all  expected  to  have  fun  at  Elizabethtown,  but  Buckner 
was  not  there.  We  have  now  here  about  4,500  men  and  a  battery 
of  six  guns.  By  to-night  or  to-morrow  morning  the  number  will 
be  swelled  to  6,000. 

General  Sherman  is  a  strong  man.  He  pays  no  attention  to 
the  traps  and  trimmings.  He  has  brains  and  is  all  the  time 
wide  awake. 

My  prospect  now  to  get  home  soon  is  not  very  good 

September  25  the  Kentucky  legislature,  over  the  veto  of 
the  Governor,  called  for  40,000  Kentuckians  to  serve  for 
not  less  than  one  year  nor  more  than  three  to  repel  from  the 
State  the  armed  invasion  from  the  South.  That  even  then 
the  Kentuckians  did  not  come  forward  with  alacrity  is  mani- 
fest when  we  consider  that  thirty  days  later  but  fifteen 
Kentucky  regiments  had  been  organized,  while  in  the  mean- 
time there  had  reached  Kentucky  seventeen  Indiana  regi- 
ments, aggregating  18,187  men;  and  thirteen  Ohio  reg- 
iments, three  from  Pennsylvania,  two  from  Minnesota,  and 
several  from  other  States. 

The  following  letter  from  Colonel  Gresham  is  of  interest 

at  this  point : 

Camp  Muldrough  Hill, 

September  27,  1861 
I  wrote  you  the  other  day  by  Mr.  Cannon,  giving  you  a  brief 
account  of  our  march  to  this  place.  We  had  a  hard  time  of  it  for 
several  days,  but  we  now  have  our  tents  and  supplies  and  are 
living  finely.  Give  yourself  no  trouble  on  my  account  for  really 
I  believe  I  can  enjoy  myself  better  when  we  are  hard  up  than 
at  any  other  time.  I  can  stand  as  much  hunger,  heat,  and  cold  as 
any  other  man.     It  is  all  over  now,  but  for  three  days  we  lived 

IV 


158       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

on  meat  alone  and  that  too  of  a  poor  quality,  yet  I  never  was  in 
better  spirits  in  my  life.  You  need  not  be  afraid  of  my  risking 
my  life  unnecessarily.  I  want  to  live,  I  confess,  on  my  own  ac- 
count, but  more  on  your  and  the  children's  account. 

Our  force  is  still  increasing.  We  have  a  most  splendid  army. 
Rousseau's  men,  as  a  whole,  are  the  worst  in  the  camp.  His 
brigade  is  composed  mostly  of  low,  worthless  men  who  have  no 
pride  nor  character.  Of  course,  there  are  exceptions.  The  Ohio 
troops  can't  be  beat,  but  old  Hoosier,  God  bless  her,  stands  head 
and  shoulders  above  all  the  States.  The  Indianians  are  cheered 
wherever  we  find  Union  people  in  Kentucky.  The  Kentucky 
officers  all  say  the  Hoosier  soldiers  are  the  best  in  the  Union, 
but  they  claim  that  we  are  all  descendants  of  the  Kentuckians. 

I  was  field  officer  of  the  day  from  yesterday  morning  till 
this  morning.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  field  officer  to  station  the 
pickets  according  to  the  instructions  of  the  general.  I  started 
out  this  morning  at  two  o'clock  on  the  grand  rounds,  visiting  all 
the  pickets.  Several  times  during  the  night  the  pickets  fired  on 
men  trying  to  get  through  the  lines. 

Can't  say  how  long  we  will  remain  here,  perhaps  a  week 
or  two  weeks. 

I  shall  be  all  night  making  the  grand  rounds.  The  grand 
round  is  visiting  all  the  pickets  after  night  and  seeing  they  are  all 
faithful  and  that  nothing  is  wrong.  We  will  start  out  at  ten  and 
get  in  about  daylight. 

I  have  received  the  sword,  belt,  etc.,  presented  me  by  my 
friends.  It  is  a  very  nice  one  and  I  prize  it  highly.  Our  boys  are 
all  doing  finely — very  little  sickness,  none  of  a  serious  character. 
I  am  getting  stouter  every  day;  think  I  am  going  to  grow  fat  if 
I  stay  in  camp  long. 

Here  I  must  anticipate  and  relate  what  General  Sher- 
man afterwards  told  me  many  times — first  at  the  Gayoso 
House  in  Memphis.1  I  give  his  exact  words:  "When  your 
husband  came  to  report  to  me  at  Muldrough  Hill,  he  was 
the  handsomest  young  fellow  I  had  ever  seen,  with  his 
black  hair  and  brilliant  eyes,  but  what  delighted  me  more 
than  I  can  tell  was  what  he  said — 'General,  we  know 
nothing  about  soldiering,  but  are  here  to  obey  orders,  study, 

iSee  page  194. 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  159 

and  learn.'  He,  I  said  to  myself,  is  the  kind  of  man  I  am 
looking  for;  he  will  learn,  and  I  ordered  him  and  his  reg- 
iment right  out  to  the  front.  I  put  him  on  the  picket  line 
and  kept  him  there  most  of  the  time  he  was  with  me." 

It  so  happened  that  Colonel  Scribner  was  absent  when 
the  Thirty-eighth  Indiana  Volunteers  first  reported  to  Gen- 
eral Sherman,  and  thus  it  was  the  lieutenant-colonel  who 
spoke  for  it. 

Walter  Q.  Gresham  could  obey  and  did  obey  his  supe- 
riors. He  recognized  the  trained  soldier  as  his  master. 
But  when  it  came  to  political,  legal,  and  moral  questions 
it  will  appear  he  recognized  no  party1  and  no  man  as  his 
master,  neither  General  Sherman  nor  General  Grant.2 

I  give  a  number  of  letters  received  by  me  at  this  time : 

Camp  Muldrough  Hill, 
September  30,  1861 

Yesterday  was  Sunday.  At  nine  in  the  morning  we  were  in- 
spected by  General  Sherman.  He  is  a  very  singular  man — very 
plain — more  regardless  of  his  appearance  than  I  am  —  says  but 
little.  He  is  decidedly  a  man  of  action.  He  has  a  regular  mili- 
tary education.  Was  in  command  in  California  during  the  Reign 
of  the  Vigilantes. 

From  present  indications  I  think  we  will  soon  have  a  large 
army  here.  I  have  just  learned  from  Mr.  Wintersmith  that  the 
famous  Sixty-ninth  Irish  Regiment  of  New  York  is  back  at  the 
Junction.  In  addition  to  that,  troops  are  coming  in  from  Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  The  boasted  chivalry  of 
Kentucky  are  great  for  bragging  on  each  other,  but  at  a  time  like 
this,  when  their  State  is  invaded,  you  would  think  every  man 
would  step  forth  to  battle  for  her  rights.     She  is  lukewarm. 

I  am  satisfied  the  administration  intends  to  make  this  army 
50,000  or  75,000  strong  and  send  it  to  Nashville  and  there  operate 
in  conjunction  with  Fremont  on  the  Mississippi.  I  was  told  by  a 
gentleman  last  night  who  knows  or  who  is  in  a  position  to  know, 
that  40,000  men  are  ordered  from  Washington  here,  that  is,  to 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  by  this  route. 

Scores  of  Kentuckians  are  coming  in  daily  and  taking  the  oath. 

1  See  pages  184,  458,  656  and  670.    2  See  pages  427  and  469. 


160       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Some  come  over  twenty  miles.  Some  of  them  seem  to  be  much 
relieved  after  taking  the  oath  and  being  forgiven,  as  a  guilty  sinner 
after  his  load  of  sin  is  removed. 

Our  chaplain  sings  well,  prays  well,  preaches  well,  and  I  am 
satisfied  will  fight  well. 

You  can  make  such  disposition  of  the  home  as  you  like.     If 

you  could  rent  it  to  a  good  family,  perhaps  you  had  better  do 

it.    .    .    . 

Camp  Muldrough,  Kentucky, 

October  6,  1861 

It  is  now  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  I  have  been  in  the 

saddle  all  day — I  think  I  have  traveled  over  twenty  miles.     I  am 

field  officer  of  the  day  and  have  charge  of  all  the  outposts  or 

pickets.     We  have  thrown  out  our  pickets  from   two   to   four 

miles  around  the  camp. 

Dan  has  been  with  me  to-day  and  although  it  has  been  raining 

onus  pretty  much  all  the  time  we  have  had  a  good  time  of  it. 

Dan  is  the  best  adjutant  in  the  brigade ;  he  is  altogether  the  most 

perfect  man  I  ever  saw,  and  the  more  I  am  with  him  the  more  I 

see  about  him  to  admire.     He  has  fine  military  talent. 

Our  regiment  has  improved  most  marvelously  since  we  came 

here.     I  never  studied  so  hard  in  my  life  as  I  have  in  the  last  two 

weeks.     I  am  determined  to  be  up  with  the  best  of  them. 

Camp  Nevin,  Kentucky, 

October  24,  1861 

I  am  pleased  with  the  way  General  Sherman  is  managing  this 
column  of  the  army.  He  is  organizing  it  on  a  large  scale,  I  assure 
you,  and  when  we  do  move  forward  the  Rebels  will  have  no  child's 
play  of  it  fighting  us.  We  belong  to  General  Wood's  brigade, 
which  consists  of  the  Twenty-ninth,  Thirty-eighth,  and  Thirty- 
ninth  Indiana  Regiments,  and  General  McCook  says  we  are  the 
best  brigade  he  ever  saw  anywhere.  We  drill  eight  hours  every 
day,  so  you  see  we  are  not  idle. 

A  Pennsylvania  brigade  comes  up  to-night.  I  will  go  down  to 
meet  them  and  see  if  John  Jones  is  along. 

The  Second  Minnesota  got  up  this  morning,  but  I  have  not 
had  time  to  call  on  them  and  see  whether  Bill  [the  younger 
brother]  is  along  or  not.  I  hope  he  is,  for  I  don't  want  him  to  stay 
at  home  at  a  time  like  this. 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  161 

There  was  quite  a  scene  at  General  Wood's  headquarters  last 
night.  Fourteen  slaves  belonging  to  his  father,  living  on  Green 
River,  walked  all  the  way  to  him  for  protection.  The  general 
told  me  that  one  of  the  servants,  his  sister's  maid,  who  is  intelligent 
and  virtuous,  was  robbed  of  her  clothing,  and  she  came  to  him 
with  a  blanket  wrapped  around  her.  He  also  says  that  the  Rebels 
made  the  Union  ladies  give  up  their  finger  rings  and  everything 
of  value. 

Camp  Nevin,  Kentucky, 
November  8,  1861 

I  have  just  returned  this  morning  from  picket  duty;  I  went 
on  yesterday  morning — and  have  been  in  the  saddle  at  least  twenty 
hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  I  lay  down  last  night  in  the  woods 
and  took  a  short  nap. 

Camp  life  agrees  with  me  finely.  My  health  has  not  been  as 
good  as  it  now  is  for  years.  If  you  are  just  as  comfortable  as  I  am, 
you  will  do  well  this  winter. 

Yesterday  evening  Colonel  McHenry  of  Owensboro  sent  into 
our  camp  fifteen  secesh  cavalrymen,  with  their  horses,  etc.,  which 
were  captured  by  him  when  on  their  way.  to  join  Buckner.  I 
saw  them  last  night.  They  were  anxious  to  take  the  oath  and  be 
forgiven,  but  they  were  not  so  fortunate  as  that.  They  will  be 
confined  as  prisoners  of  war,  or  handed  over  to  the  loyal  author- 
ities of  Kentucky  to  be  dealt  with.  We  are  still  at  Camp  Nevin 
and  I  can't  say  when  we  will  leave.  The  men  are  all  anxious  for 
a  move. 

The  greatest  sufferers  in  the  war  were  the  women  who 
were  left  behind.  I  saw  something  of  the  suffering  and  woe 
the  war  brought  to  the  Southern  women  and  I  sympathized 
with  them.  To  many  a  youth  the  war  for  most  of  the  time 
was  a  holiday.  The  men  in  authority  and  at  the  front  had 
none  of  the  heartrending,  anxious  times  the  women  had. 
A  war  is  an  evil  not  so  much  because  of  the  loss  of  life 
and  physical  pain  that  is  inflicted,  but  because  of  the  cor- 
rupting influence  it  has  on  society  —  wTith  its  swarms  of 
contractors,  sutlers,  and  parasites  of  every  kind.  In  our 
war,  the  destruction  of  private  property,  the  property  of 


162       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

non-combatants  —  because  of  its  use  by  the  enemy  —  to  me 
was  horrible.  The  only  time  I  ever  heard  my  husband 
question  the  wisdom  of  any  of  Sherman's  acts  was  after  the 
" Meridian  campaign"  in  January,  1864,  when  he  said,  "It 
was  awful  the  way  we  burned  bridges,  mills  and  grain,  and 
private  property  of  every  description  that  could  be  used  by 
our  enemy ;  but  our  orders  were  imperative. ' '  For  such  work 
he  had  no  heart.  Southern  people  blame  General  Sherman 
for  much  unnecessary,  and  as  they  put  it,  wanton  destruction 
of  private  property.  But  that  property  was  not  destroyed 
until  it  was  evident  that  it  was  being  used  to  help  sustain  a 
cause  that  the  pitched  battles  had  already  demonstrated 
could  not  succeed,  and  until  the  Confederates  themselves 
were  getting  close  to  the  line  that  divides  the  war  of  the  civil- 
ized man  from  that  of  the  savage,  if  there  is  such  a  line. 
General  Sherman  simply  applied  the  rules  of  his  profession 
to  the  case  before  him,  and  made  war,  however  it  may  be 
disguised,  what  it  really  is — hell.  Honest,  generous,  and 
warm-hearted,  when  the  end  came,  he  was  the  most  mag- 
nanimous man  in  the  North. 

I  quote  several  other  letters  sent  me  from  the  field: 

Camp  Nevin,  Kentucky, 

November  29,  1861 

Captains  Carter  and  Glover  have  succeeded  in  getting  fur- 
loughs for  a  few  days  to  visit  their  families,  and  I  take  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  to  send  you  a  few  lines. 

We  are  in  very  much  the  same  condition  as  when  I  wrote  you 
last — no  worse  and  not  much  better.  One  poor  fellow  died  last 
night  in  his  tent  and  another  is  dying  now.  It  has  been  raining 
constantly  for  three  or  four  days.  Last  night  the  very  heavens 
seemed  to  open.  The  information  from  Buckner's  army  is  that 
the  mortality  there  is  much  greater  than  it  is  here.  He  lost 
over  a  hundred  men  in  one  day  last  week. 

We  are  waiting  here  for  reinforcements  before  we  move,  but 
every  preparation  is  being  made  now  to  advance.  Pontoon 
bridges  are  being  built  which  we  will  take  with  us  for  the  purpose 


OPENINGOFTHEWAR  163 

of  crossing  creeks  and  rivers.  It  is  thought  we  will  get  off  next 
week.  I  hope  we  will  move  soon,  for  I  think  a  change  will  do  the 
men  good. 

My  health  continues  good.     I  never  felt  better  in  my  life. 

Camp  Nevin,  Kentucky, 
November  30,  1861 

Another  Sunday  is  well-nigh  gone  and  the  remainder  of  it  will 
be  devoted  to  writing  you  a  letter.  The  last  two  or  three  days 
have  been  cold  and  disagreeable,  but  we  have  fared  well.  Some 
of  our  boys  have  invented  a  very  good  substitute  for  a  stove. 
You  have  seen  the  old-style  kiln  for  drying  fruit.  It  is  made  on 
that  principle.  A  flue  is  at  one  end  of  the  tent,  extending  inside 
about  two  feet,  with  a  small  chimney  at  the  end  outside.  By  this 
means  our  tents  are  made  quite  comfortable.  Lesh  Pfrimmer 
and  John  Springer  of  Captain  Carter's  company  were  good 
enough  to  build  a  very  nice  one  for  me  yesterday,  for  which  they 
received  my  warmest  thanks.  I  am  fortunate  enough  to  have 
plenty  of  good  friends.  I  verily  believe  there  are  men  in  this 
regiment  who  would  deny  themselves  almost  everything  to 
accommodate  and  please  me.  There  is  nothing  like  having 
good  friends  in  the  army.  The  man  who  has  no  friends  is  not 
deserving  of  them. 

Major  Merriwether  and  I  have  moved  together,  and  we  now 
occupy  the  same  tent.  He  is  a  very  clever  gentleman  and  we  get 
along  very  agreeably. 

I  am  now  more  at  a  loss  than  ever  as  to  the  intention  of  General 
Sherman  in  regard  to  the  movements  of  this  division  of  the  army. 
I  am  satisfied  he  intended  to  make  a  forward  movement  some  ten 
days  ago,  but  the  reported  reinforcement  of  the  Rebels  likely 
induced  him  to  postpone  his  contemplated  attack  until  he  gets 
further  reinforcements.  I  have  great  confidence  in  his  judgment. 
In  fact,  I  have  almost  learned  to  believe  that  anything  he  does 
is  right.  I  am  satisfied  that  if  he  is  left  free  to  pursue  his  own 
way,  he  will  speedily  expel  the  Rebels  from  Kentucky.  All  com- 
munication with  our  camp  is  now  cut  off,  General  Sherman  not 
allowing  any  civilian  to  enter  our  lines.  The  Rebels  were  in  the 
habit  of  coming  into  camp  with  loud  professions  of  loyalty  to  the 
Union,  taking  the  oath  of  fealty,  swearing  that  they  would  remain 


164       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

true  and  loyal  and  in  no  way  aid  or  countenance  the  rebellion  by 
giving  information  or  otherwise,  and  thus  they  were  enabled  to 
get  a  peep  at  our  camp,  after  which  they  would  straightway  go  to 
Buckner  and  report  what  they  had  seen,  the  number  of  men  we 
have,  and  everything  else  that  they  could  remember  that  would 
be  of  service  to  the  Rebels. 

Tell  Tom  bad  reports  have  come  out  here  concerning  the  Cory- 
don  Home  Guards.  It  is  said  that  when  they  got  to  Mauckport 
they  refused  to  cross  the  river  on  the  ground  that  they  were  Home 
Guards  and  were  not  bound  to  leave  the  State.  In  other  words, 
the  report  comes  here  from  Mauckport  and  Louisville  that  the 
Cory  don  Home  Guards  acted  the  coward — that  they  were  afraid 
to  cross  the  river  when  called  on.  I  feel  sensitive  on  the  subject 
myself,  and  I  want  Tom  to  write  me  giving  the  particulars.  Did 
the  boys  refuse  to  cross  the  river  from  fear?     I  can't  believe  it. 

Camp  Nevin,  Kentucky, 

December  7,  1861 

"Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,"  is  one  of  the 
solemn  injunctions  of  that  good  book,  but  I  am  inclined  to  believe 
that  it  was  not  meant  to  apply  to  the  army.  You  see  very  little 
in  the  army  to  remind  you  of  the  manner  in  which  "home  folks" 
spend  the  Lord's  day.  It  is  true  that  where  there  is  no  immediate 
prospect  of  an  engagement  the  men  are  permitted  to  rest  from 
their  labors  to  some  extent  on  the  Sabbath,  but  still  it  is  not  like 
a  Sunday  at  home. 

Camp  Nevin,  Kentucky, 

December  9,  1861 

We  moved  yesterday  evening  from  our  old  camp.  We  are 
about  two  miles  southwest  of  where  we  were.  General  Buell 
has  issued  an  order  changing  our  brigades.  We  are  now  in  the 
Seventh  Brigade  under  General  Negley  of  Pennsylvania.  We 
were  before  under  General  Wood  and  in  the  Second  Brigade,  com- 
posed exclusively  of  Hoosiers.  General  Negley's  brigade  is  com- 
posed of  two  Pennsylvania  regiments,  the  First  Wisconsin,  and 
ours,  the  Thirty-eighth  Indiana,  with  a  battery  of  six  guns.  The 
First  Wisconsin  is  said  to  be  the  finest  regiment  in  the  army  of 
Ohio.  Can't  say  that  I  am  displeased  with  the  change,  though 
I  know  nothing  about  General  Negley.     It  was  thought  that  it 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  165 

would  have  a  good  effect  to  mix  up  the  regiments  from  the  different 
states;  in  other  words,  it  was  thought  it  would  have  a  tendency  to 
nationalize  the  army.  The  boys  are  well  pleased  with  the  change 
of  camp.     I  think  the  sick  will  improve  more  rapidly  now. 

General  Buell,  by  a  general  order,  has  convened  a  general  court- 
martial,  which  assembles  every  day  at  headquarters.  It  is  com- 
posed of  a  dozen  officers.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  court-martial  to  try 
all  offenders  against  military  laws,  etc.  There  is  not  much  mercy 
shown  a  man  when  he  is  brought  before  a  court-martial  for  diso- 
bedience, negligence,  or  almost  anything  else  that  is  unbecoming 
a  good  soldier.  I  am  a  member  of  this  court,  and  I  guess  you 
would  think  I  had  a  stony  heart  if  you  could  be  present  at  some  of 
our  trials.  We  have  not  inflicted  the  death  penalty  yet,  but  can't 
say  how  long  it  will  be  till  we  do. 

I  received  a  letter  from  Judge  Otto  the  other  day,  from  Indian- 
apolis, stating  that  I  had  been  proposed  to  the  President  as  a 
suitable  person  to  be  appointed  brigadier-general.  I  hardly  know 
whether  I  want  the  appointment  or  not.  Am  a  little  afraid  it  is 
climbing  a  little  too  fast,  though  I  believe  I  am  as  well  quali- 
fied as  a  majority  of  our  brigadiers.  The  judge  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  thing,  and  it  has  all  been  done  without  consulting  me. 
Say  nothing  about  it,  for  people  would  think  you  were  bragging. 

If  it  is  so  I  can  possibly  get  down  to  Louisville,  Christmas,  I 
will  meet  you  there,  but  don't  rely  on  anything  of  the  kind,  for  it 
is  very  uncertain.  We  are  now  waiting  for  the  gunboats  at  Cairo. 
We  will  move  simultaneously  with  that  column.  They  will  likely 
be  ready  in  the  next  ten  days.  We  have  now  got  a  pretty  large 
army  in  Kentucky.  It  is  strung  all  the  way  from  here  to  Louis- 
ville. 

I  wish  you  could  take  a  peep  at  us ;  you  would  be  better  satis- 
fied afterwards.  We  live  much  better  than  you  imagine.  Mrs. 
Scribner  has  just  left  camp.  She  said  she  had  no  idea  that  we 
could  get  along  as  well  as  we  do.  But  now  no  women  can  enter 
our  lines,  there  being  a  general  order  against  it. 

Camp  Negley,  Kentucky, 

December  10,  1861 
I  have  little  time  to  write.     We  are  all  preparing  to  go  to  Green 
River.     Part  of  the  force  started  yesterday.     We  will  all  go  ahead 


166       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

just  as  fast  as  our  transportation  will  admit.  I  will  be  apt  to  go 
to  Green  River  to-morrow,  whether  our  regiment  goes  or  not. 
The  general  court-martial  of  which  I  spoke  in  my  last  letter  will 
adjourn  to-day  to  meet  there  —  Mumfordsville  —  to-morrow,  and 
being  a  member  of  the  court  I  will  have  to  go  along.  Heretofore 
the  troops  have  been  stationed  all  along  the  line  of  the  road 
from  here  to  Louisville,  but  now  they  are  being  ordered  forward. 
We  will  have  on  Green  River  by  Sunday  an  army  of  25,000  men; 
that,  though,  will  not  include  all  our  force. 

I  received  a  letter  from  Governor  Morton  Saturday  tendering 
me  the  colonelcy  of  the  Fifty-third  Indiana  Regiment,  now  being 
organized  at  Indianapolis.  I  have  written  back  accepting  the 
appointment,  but  the  court-martial  and  this  forward  movement 
may  keep  me  here  some  time  yet,  and  I  may  not  take  the  appoint- 
ment at  all.  As  soon  as  I  can  leave  here  a  few  days  I  want  to  run 
up  to  Indianapolis  and  see  how  things  look.  General  Wood  and 
my  friends  here  outside  the  Thirty-eighth  advise  me  to  accept. 
It  is  not  generally  known  in  our  regiment  that  the  Governor  has 
tendered  me  the  command  of  the  Fifty- third. 

Camp  Wood,  Kentucky, 

December  15,  1861 

When  I  wrote  you  last  we  were  preparing  to  move.  We  got 
down  here  (near  Green  River)  Wednesday  night  about  8  o'clock. 
We  are  all  much  better  pleased  than  we  were  before.  We  are 
camped  on  high  ground.  The  air  is  pure  and  bracing,  and  I  am 
confident  our  sick  list  will  constantly  grow  less.  I  wonder  that 
any  of  us  kept  our  health  at  Camp  Nevin.  It  was  a  miserable 
sickly  place. 

Our  court-martial  is  still  sitting.  We  hoped  to  have  been 
able  to  adjourn  last  week  but  new  cases  are  constantly  coming 
before  us.  As  soon  as  the  court  adjourns  I  want  to  run  up  to 
Indianapolis  and  see  how  the  Fifty-third  looks.  If  I  can  get  it 
ready  to  enter  the  service  soon,  I  will  take  command  of  it,  and  if 
I  can't  I  will  decline.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Burgess  is  very  anxious 
for  me  to  accept.     I  have  just  heard  from  him. 

Meantime  I  want  you  to  come  down  and  visit  me  here. 
Write  promptly  and  let  me  know  if  you  are  coming  and  I 
will  meet  you. 


OPENING    OF    THE    WAR  167 

Here  I  must  bid  good-bye  to  the  Thirty-eighth  Indiana 
Volunteers.  It  was  one  of  the  three  hundred  fighting  reg- 
iments that  supported  the  Union  cause.  It  lost  411  men. 
But  one  Indiana  regiment  suffered  a  greater  mortality — 
the  Thirtieth,  with  412.  It  ' 'veteranized,"  or  re-enlisted, 
in  1864,  247  strong.  At  Perry ville,  after  it  had  exhausted 
forty  rounds  of  ammunition,  Colonel  Scribner  and  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Griffin  held  it  in  line  with  fixed  bayonets  for 
twenty-five  minutes  in  the  face  of  a  galling  fire,  until  relieved 
to  go  to  the  rear  and  fill  cartridge  boxes.  This  was  Colonel 
Scribner's  last  service  with  that  regiment.  Civil  engineer 
that  he  was, -the  sketches  he  sent  home  and  his  letters  show 
that  Dan  Griffin  was  competent  to  criticize  Buell  and  Rose- 
crans  "for  not  leading  them  on."  Under  Colonel  Griffin, 
it  was  said,  "night  or  day  the  Thirty-eighth  was  always 
ready  for  any  duty." 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE   FIFTY-THIRD   INDIANA  VOLUNTEERS 


ORGANIZATION      OF       THE       REGIMENT GRESHAM       FIRST 

COLONEL THE    FIFTY-THIRD    GUARDS    PRISONERS    CAPTURED 

AT  FORT  DONELSON  —  GOES  DOWN  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  TO  JOIN 
GENERAL  GRANT  —  SICKNESS  IN  CAMP  —  REGIMENT  GOES  UP 
OHIO    AND    TENNESSEE    RIVERS    TOWARD    SAVANNAH. 

A  TELEGRAM  changed  our  plans,  so  instead  of  going  to 
Muldrough  Hill  or  one  of  the  other  camps  for  a  visit,  we 
met  at  Louisville.  On  my  way  there  I  stopped  at  the  resi- 
dence of  Samuel  and  "Aunt  Sally"  Patterson  in  Jefferson- 
ville.  Unknown  to  me,  at  the  same  time  came  Governor 
Morton  and  Mrs.  Morton.  It  was  one  of  the  few  times  I 
ever  saw  Governor  Morton.  He  was  a  handsome  man  and 
naturally  an  object  of  great  curiosity  to  me.  Our  meeting 
was  not  cordial.  But  it  was  more  embarrassing  to  the 
Governor  than  to  me.  He  knew  that  I  knew  that  he  had 
not  commissioned  my  husband  because  he  wanted  to  do  so, 
and  that  I  knew  of  the  things  that  had  been  said  to  him 
and  about  him.  The  next  morning  "Aunt  Sally"  Patterson 
said  with  a  sniff,  "The  Governor  and  Mrs.  M.  have  gone  to 
Louisville."  But  she  was  a  wise  woman,  and  her  husband's 
railroad  was  making  lots  of  money  at  that  time  handling 
State  troops  and  munitions  of  war. 

My  husband  and  I  met  at  the  Gault  Hotel,  Louisville, 
for  Christmas.  From  Louisville  he  went  to  Indianapolis, 
where  it  was  at  first  supposed  the  Fifty-third  was  practically 
ready  for  the  field;  but  instead  it  was  only  a  paper  organi- 
zation. Horace  Bell,  the  hero  of  the  famous  kidnapping 
affair,  was  then  in  Indianapolis  in  the  service  of  the  War 
Department,  and  my  husband  wanted  him  to  be  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  new  regiment.  The  Governor  was  willing  to 
commission  him,  Bell  said,  but  imposed  conditions  that  he, 

1 68 


FIFTY-THIRD    INDIANA    VOLUNTEERS        169 

Bell,  could  not  comply  with,  namely,  that  he  bear  part  of  the 
expenses  of  organizing  the  regiment.  There  was  a  stormy 
interview  between  the  Governor  and  Mr.  Gresham  in  the 
Governor's  office.  Some  of  the  things  Bell  reported  that 
" Gresham  said  to  the  Governor's  face"  were  awful,  and  I 
will  not  repeat  them.  These  statements  and  also  Bell's  own 
assertion  that  the  Governor  was  selling  commissions,  Bell 
proclaimed  broadcast,  and  over  the  Bates  House  bar,  and,  in 
the  language  of  the  barbarian  and  savage  of  that  time, 
avowed  his  personal  responsibility  to  any  man  who  might 
feel  aggrieved  at  his  statements.1  The  fact  that  no  man  in 
those  days  wanted  to  fight  with  Horace  Bell,  although  to  do 
so  would  be  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  second  strongest 
man  in  the  nation  —  for  such  then  was  Oliver  P.  Morton 
—  does  not  necessarily  verify  Bell's  statements.  It  was  due 
to  Indiana's  War  Governor  that  Mr.  Lincoln  very  properly 
removed  General  Don  Carlos  Buell,  and  in  forensic  ability 
my  husband  rated  Governor  —  afterwards  Senator  —  Mor- 
ton as  second  to  no  man  who  had  appeared  since  Webster's 
time.  But  often  what  is  said  is  as  important  as  what  is 
done.  This  much  I  will  quote  from  Horace  Bell:  "Your 
husband  denounced  the  Governor  for  deceiving  him  into 
resigning  a  commission  in  an  active  regiment  in  the  field 
for  a  commission  in  a  paper  organization.  'You  can't  keep 
me  out  of  the  field  in  this  way,  and  expenses  will  not  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  organization  of  the  new  regiment.'" 

Mr.  Slaughter,  Samuel  J.  Wright,  Dr.  Slemmons  of 
Cory  don,  and  Peter  R.  Stoy  of  New  Albany,  helped  my 
husband  bear  the  expenses  of  the  organization  of  the  Fifty- 
third,  and  the  breach  between  the  Governor  and  my  husband 
widened.  Bell  continued  in  the  service  of  the  National 
government  to  the  close  of  the  war,  and  achieved  distinc- 
tion and  honorable  mention  as  a  "scout."  There  was  not 
enough  hazard  for  him  in  the  field.  He  was  one  of  the  men 
who  went  through  the  South  visiting  the  Confederate  armies 

1  See  page  183. 


170       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  reporting  at  intervals  to  Mr.  Stanton  and  Mr.  Lincoln.1 

We  had  a  few  happy  days  at  Cory  don.  Various  places 
were  visited  to  make  speeches  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging 
enlistments.  The  fact  that  my  husband  had  been  in  the 
service  induced  parents  to  trust  their  boys  —  for  most  of  the 
recruits  were  mere  boys  —  to  him  rather  than  to  the  many 
political  appointees.  He  declined  at  this  time  to  consider 
the  offer  of  a  nomination  for  Congress,  because,  if  elected, 
he  did  not  propose  to  leave  the  field  until  the  war  was  ended. 
Samuel  J.  Wright  was  the  enrolling  officer  of  our  district. 
He  would  get  up  the  meetings,  and  then  my  husband  would 
make  a  speech  on  the  necessity  of  preserving  the  integrity 
of  the  Union.  Meetings  were  held  as  far  north  as  Bedford, 
the  county  seat  of  Lawrence  County.  A  master  of  denun- 
ciation and  invective,  Colonel  Gresham  scored  the  traitor, 
but  still  disclaimed  being  an  Abolitionist,  and  reminded  the 
people  of  the  speeches  he  had  made  in  every  campaign  since 
1854,  as  evidence  of  the  position  he  had  taken  and  the 
government  was  then  taking,  that  their  object  was  only  to 
preserve  the  Union.  At  the  end  of  a  speech  a  number  al- 
ways came  forward  and  enrolled  their  names  as  members  of 
the  new  regiment. 

January  10,  1862,  headquarters  were  established  at  the 
fair  grounds  in  New  Albany.     It  was  still  called  Camp  Noble. 

I  again  went  to  New  Albany  and,  notwithstanding  the 
winter  weather,  made  a  few  visits  to  the  camp.  The  "Bar- 
racks," as  the  fair  ground  buildings  were  called,  the  horse 
stalls,  and  the  tents  were  poor  protection  in  winter  time. 
Drilling  was  done  in  the  large  halls  designed  only  for  occu- 
pancy in  summer  time. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  sickness  soon  appeared. 
Measles,  the  deadly  enemy  of  the  seventeen-  and  eighteen- 
year-old  recruit,  soon  confronted  them.  Many  were  in  the 
hospitals  before  the  regiment  was  formally  organized. 

Thus  passed  January  and  February  down  to  the  2 2d, 

1  See  page  183. 


FIFTY-THIRD    INDIANA    VOLUNTEERS        171 

when  the  Fifty-third  was  mustered  into  the  service.  En- 
listments were  not  as  rapid  as  had  been  expected  and  as 
desired,  so  on  the  26th  of  February  the  Sixty-second  Indiana 
Volunteers,  which  was  being  recruited  and  organized  at 
Rockport,  Indiana,  was  brought  to  New  Albany  and  con- 
solidated with  the  Fifty-third. 

My  husband  was  now  colonel.  William  Jones  was  made 
the  lieutenant-colonel,  Roger  Martin  the  major,  and  my 
brother,  Thomas  McGrain,  Jr.,  the  adjutant.  Up  to  that 
time  my  brother  had  listened  to  the  counsels  of  my  father 
against  entering  the  army.  Satisfied  it  was  not  a  war  of 
abolition,  and  having  a  military  education,  he  could  no 
longer  resist  the  pressure  which  was  being  exerted  on  men 
of  his  class  to  take  up  arms,  in  defense,  as  it  was  said,  of  the 
integrity  of  the  Union. 

Colonel  Jones  was  killed  in  battle  on  July  22,  1864,  and 
Major  Martin  soon  resigned.  On  April  17,  1862,  my 
brother,  at  the  almost  unanimous  request  of  the  officers  of 
the  regiment,  was  commissioned  major  of  the  regiment,  and 
held  that  position  until  he  left  the  service,  May  11,  1863. 
Had  he  stayed  in  the  army  and  not  been  killed,  it  was  the 
consensus  of  opinion  that  he  was  fitted  for,  and  was  designed 
for,  a  higher  position.  But  he  could  not  stand  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation.  Many  others  were  like  him,  but 
few  were  so  outspoken.  He  freely  said  that  he  did  not  enlist 
for  the  purpose  of  "fighting  to  free  the  niggers." 

To  have  to  fight  to  get  into  the  army,  then  fight  and 
help  pay  his  way  to  stay  there,  that  the  special  interests  of 
that  time  should  not  control  the  government,  gave  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  the  right  which  he  exercised  to  protest  against 
the  government  of  the  United  States  being  administered  in 
the  '8o's  and  '90's  in  the  interest  of  the  special  interests  of 
those  years.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  my  husband  did  not 
hesitate  to  separate  himself  from  men  like  Chauncey  M. 
Depew,  who  in  our  body  politic  represented  certain  special 
interests.     During  the  war  my  husband  repeatedly  said, 


v 


172       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

"What  my  future  political  course  shall  be,  will  depend  on 
the  exigencies  of  the  times." 

Instead  of  starting  for  the  front  at  first,  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Fifty- third  desired,  the  regiment  was  ordered 
to  Camp  Morton,  at  Indianapolis,  to  guard  part  of  the 
prisoners  captured  at  Fort  Donelson.  Later  it  went  to  St. 
Louis  and  thence  via  the  Mississippi,  Ohio,  and  Tennessee 
rivers  to  join  General  Grant  at  Savannah,  Tennessee.  Its 
movements  can  best  be  -told  by  some  of  the  letters  I 
received  at  this  time. 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers, 

Camp  Morton,  March  1,  1862 
I  have  been  too  busy  even  to  drop  you  a  line  since  I  left  New 
Albany.  We  had  a  terrible  time  getting  up  here.  The  super- 
intendent of  the  Jeflersonville  &  Indianapolis  Railroad  had  not 
made  the  necessary  arrangements  to  transport  the  Fifty-third 
here  (Indianapolis),  and  the  consequence  was  that  I  had  to  crowd 
the  boys  into  hay  cars,  with  no  fire,  and  it  was  very  cold.  I  was 
up  all  night  and  the  following  night;  but  it  never  even  tired  me. 
We  are  now  getting  things  in  shape  and  I  am  drilling  the  boys 
all  the  time,  in  order  to  get  them  in  condition  to  leave.  There 
are  about  1,500  troops  here,  all  told,  guarding  the  prisoners, 
who  number  4,000.  They  are  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and 
Mississippi.  A  large  majority  of  them  are  clamorous  to  take 
the  oath.  They  say  they  have  been  deceived  and  that  they  are 
Union  men.  Many  of  them  are  in  earnest  and  many  'of  them 
are  not.  I  have  but  little  patience  for  the  work,  and  unless  we 
leave  here  soon,  I  intend  to  resign.  The  Governor  says  we  will 
be  here  but  a  short  time. 

Camp  Morton,  Indiana, 

March  9,  1862 

I  described  our  situation  to  you  in  my  last  letter.  Since  then 
the  weather  has  been  better,  but  it  is  now  (Sunday  evening) 
raining  again.  Owing  to  our  exposure  in  coming  here  and  the 
heavy  guard  duty  we  have  had  to  perform,  our  men  have  suffered 
severely  from  sickness.  The  health  of  the  camp  is  now  improving. 
I  have  had  a  slight  touch  of  my  old  disease  since  we  arrived  here, 


FIFTY-THIRD    INDIANA    VOLUNTEERS        173 

but  it  was  nothing  in  comparison  with  former  attacks.     I  am 
now  well. 

Can't  say  how  long  we  will  be  here,  but  I  hope  not  long.  The 
Secesh  are  getting  fat  and  sleek.  They  get  the  same  rations  our 
men  get.  They  all  say  they  fare  better  here  than  they  did  even 
in  Dixie 

Planters  Hotel,  St.  Louis, 

March  15,  1862 

We  left  Indianapolis  yesterday  evening  and  arrived  here  to- 
day about  2  p.  m.  I  immediately  reported  to  General  Halleck  for 
orders,  and  he  informed  me  that  I  would  proceed  by  steamer  to 
join  General  Grant.  I  got  my  men  aboard  the  McDowell  this 
afternoon,  but  the  boat  for  some  cause  or  other  will  not  leave 
till  to-morrow. 

We  will  be  in  the  column  that  moves  down  the  Mississippi. 
Fortunate,  are  we  not?  I  was  rejoiced  at  the  idea  of  leaving 
Indianapolis.  In  fact,  I  kept  up  such  a  fuss  with  the  Governor  that 
he  was  anxious  to  get  rid  of  us. 

We  are  all  armed  with  the  long-range  Enfield  rifle.  We  are 
prepared  for  good  work,  and  if  I  am  not  very  much  mistaken  we 
will  soon  have  it  to  do.  It  looks  just  now  as  though  the  Rebels 
would  soon  be  compelled  to  sue  for  peace,  but  I  don't  expect  to  be 
at  home  for  some  time  yet.  Certainly  there  is  nothing  in  life  half 
so  pleasant  to  me  as  the  comforts  of  my  happy  home,  the  society 
of  my  wife  and  children,  but  I  must  forego  all  these  pleasures  for 
the  present  and  battle  for  my  country.  I  don't  apprehend  any 
danger  myself,  but  if  anything  should  happen  me,  I  deliver  you 
and  the  little  ones  over  to  a  kind  Providence.  But  there  is  no 
occasion  for  me  to  speak  in  that  strain,  for  I  expect  to  spend  many, 
many  years  with  you  yet. 

My  men  have  suffered  terribly  ever  since  leaving  New  Albany, 
and  their  suffering  is  not  yet  over.  Yesterday  we  were  in  the  rain 
all  day,  and  now  they  are  huddled  together  as  thick  as  cattle. 
Their  condition  distresses  me  not  a  little. 

Can't  say  exactly  what  our  destination  is,  but  think  we  are 
going  to  Tennessee.     I  will  try  and  keep  you  advised  of  our 
whereabouts.     You  can  write  me  at  Nashville,  Fort  Henry,  and 
Cairo,  and  the  letters  will  be  forwarded.    .    .    . 
12 


174       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Mississippi  River,  On  Board  Steamer 
"McDowell,"  20  Miles  above  Cairo, 

March  16,  1862 
I  wrote  you  yesterday  morning  from  St.  Louis  that  we  were 
under  marching  orders  for  Tennessee.  I  know  nothing  more 
about  our  destination  now  than  I  did  then.  My  orders  are  to 
report  to  General  Grant  and  I  don't  know  where  he  is.  We  will 
stop  at  Fort  Henry  long  enough  to  get  our  wagons  and  then  I 
think  we  will  join  some  brigade  that  is  marching  south. 

We  have  twelve  new  cases  of  measles  since  yesterday.  We 
will  put  off  all  the  sick  at  Cairo  or  Mound  City.  My  only  fear  is 
that  the  men  are  going  to  sutler  from  sickness,  for  they  have  been 
terribly  exposed  for  a  week.     My  health  was  never  better. 

Paducah,  Kentucky, 

March  18,  1862 
We  arrived  here  last  night  and  have  been  detained  for  some 
time  by  the  discharging  of  freight.  We  start  up  the  Tennessee 
this  morning  for  Fort  Henry.  We  will  get  our  wagons  and  then 
go  on  to  Savannah,  where  we  are  concentrating  a  strong  force.  It 
is  said  we  have  50,000  men  there  now.  We  put  off  twenty  men 
here  who  took  sick  after  leaving  St.  Louis — the  measles  are  dimin- 
ishing my  men  fast.   .    .    . 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE   BATTLE   OF   SHILOH 


FIRST    MEETING   WITH    GENERAL    GRANT  — GRESHAM    COM- 
MANDS   POST    AND    BRIGADE    AT    SAVANNAH GRANT'S    ARMY 

WORSTED  BUT  NOT  DEFEATED  IN  FIRST  DAY'S  FIGHT GRANT 

PROTECTS    SHERMAN GRANT    RELIEVED    OF   HIS   COMMAND 

RAWLINS'  SECRET  REPORTS  CAUSE  MR.  LINCOLN  TO  RE- 
STORE GRANT  TO  COMMAND  —  COURT  MARTIAL  OF  COLONEL 
WORTHINGTON. 

'T>HE  letters  from  Savannah,  written  before  the  battle  of 
4:  Shiloh,  tend  at  least  to  establish  what  was  General 
Grant's  plan,  and  that  even  a  newcomer  like  the  Colonel 
of  the  Fifty-third  Indiana  Volunteers  was  admitted  to  the 
confidence  of  the  Commander-in-Chief.  Secretive  as  Gen- 
eral Grant  was  in  military  matters,  at  that  time  he  had  all 
of  his  cards  face  up  on  the  table.  His  headquarters  were 
at  Savannah  on  the  north  side  of  the  Tennessee  River.  At 
Pittsburg  Landing,  or  Shiloh,  ten  miles  up  the  river  on  the 
south  side,  was  the  constantly  increasing  Army  of  the  Ten- 
nessee. The  plan,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  the  critics, 
and  the  then  accepted  axioms  of  war,  was  to  fight  south  of 
the  river.  Moreover,  these  letters  indicate  that  General 
Grant  was  boldly  ignoring  Commander-in-Chief  Halleck 
at  St.  Louis  and  the  War  Department  at  Washington,  for 
Halleck 's  instructions  were  to  retreat  rather  than  risk  a 
general  battle.  The  grasp  General  Grant  then  exhibited 
in  the  teeth  of  the  incompetency  of  Halleck  and  the  in- 
efficiency in  the  War  Department  stamped  him,  at  least 
in  the  eyes  of  one  of  his  subordinates,  as  a  man  of  force 
and  genius.  The  criticism  has  been  made  that  -  General 
Grant  had  no  arrangements  for  a  retreat  in  the  event  of 

175 


176       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

defeat.  Defeat  was  not  contemplated.  These  letters  and 
some  verbal  statements  which  I  will  quote,  make  it  clear 
that  Colonel  Gresham,  like  the  great  mass  of  the  men  who 
made  up  General  Grant's  army,  believed  then  and  ever 
afterwards  in  General  Grant's  plan.  In  other  words, 
Grant's  followers  started  out  for  the  Gulf,  and  they  believed 
in  him  because  he  proposed  to  show  them  the  way. 

The  existence  of  the  spirit  or  purpose  of  the  volunteer, 
which  General  Grant,  alone  of  all  the  Union  commanders, 
seems  to  have  divined,  and  which  justified  his  plan,  is  re- 
vealed in  these  letters.  On  page  356  of  volume  1  of  his 
" Memoirs,"  General  Grant  said: 

He,  General  Buell,  a  strict  disciplinarian,  perhaps  did  not 
distinguish  sufficiently  between  the  volunteer  who  enlisted  for 
the  war,  and  the  soldier  who  served  in  time  of  peace.  One 
system  embraced  men  who  risked  life  for  principle  and  often 
men  of  professional  and  official  standing,  competence  or  wealth, 
and  independence  of  character.  The  other  includes,  as  a  rule, 
only  men  who  could  not  do  as  well  in  any  other  occupation. 

I  quote  several  letters  written  to  me  by  Colonel  Gresham 
at  this  period: 

Savannah,  Tenn., 
March  20,  1862 

We  arrived  here  last  night  and  are  now  disembarking  to  go 
into  camp.  We  have  had  a  long  and  tedious  trip  and  the  men 
have  suffered  severely  from  measles.  My  orders  this  morning 
were  to  proceed  up  the  river  ten  miles  further,  but  General  Grant 
countermanded  that  order,  in  consequence  of  the  health  of  the 
men.     We  will  remain  here  a  few  days. 

We  have  a  large  army  here  and  the  Rebels  are  in  force  at 
Corinth,  Mississippi,  some  fifteen  miles  distant. 

By  reference  to  the  map  you  will  see  that  we  are  really  oper- 
ating against  Memphis.  The  big  fight  will  come  off  up  here,  but 
not  short  of  ten  days,  I  think,  unless  the  Rebels  bring  it  on.  The 
Union  feeling  here  seems  to  be  strong. 

We  have  spring  here  in  all  her  loveliness.     The  grass  is  green, 


THE     BATTLE    OF     SHILOH  177 

flowers  in  bloom,  and  the  woods  full  of  birds.  The  sun  is  now- 
shining,  making  it  rather  uncomfortably  warm.  Tom  is  very- 
well  and  my  health  is  fine.    .    .    . 

Savannah,  Tenn., 
March  20,  1862 
I  have  an  opportunity  to  drop  you  another  line.  I  wrote  this 
morning  from  the  McDowell.  We  are  this  evening  in  camp 
doing  very  well.  You  will  see  by  the  map  that  we  are  about  due 
east  of  Memphis,  and  you  will  also  see  that  there  is  a  railroad 
running  from  Memphis,  through  Tuscumbia  to  Richmond.  That 
road  is  a  short  distance  south  of  us.  We  will  take  possession  of 
it  next  week,  and  in  doing  that,  we  will  have  the  big  fight.  To- 
morrow we  commence  drilling  in  earnest.    .    .    . 

Savannah,  Tenn., 
March  22,  1862 

A  boat  leaves  here  this  evening,  and  I  have  an  opportunity 
to  send  you  another  line.  I  have  not  heard  a  word  from  home 
since  leaving  Indianapolis,  and  you  may  imagine  how  anxious  I 
am  to  know  how  you  and  the  children  are  getting  along. 

The  weather  is  not  as  good  now  as  when  I  wrote  you  last 
(day  before  yesterday).  We  are  having  equinoctial  storms,  and 
I  suppose  you  are  having  winter.  Yesterday  and  to-day  would 
pass  for  good  March  days  in  Hoosier. 

I  can't  say  how  long  we  will  be  here.  We  have  measles  and 
mumps,  and  they  are  a  great  impediment  in  a  regiment.  General 
Grant  says  my  men  must  rest  a  while  before  doing  any  work. 
He  does  n't  require  us  to  furnish  a  detail  for  guards.  I  am  putting 
in  every  minute  on  the  drjjl,  so  that  my  men  may  be  in  condition 
to  do  something.  I  think  in  ten  days  from  now  we  will  be  all  right 
again.    .    .    . 

Savannah,  Tenn., 
March  24,  1862 
I  have  written  you  almost  every  day  since  we  left  Indianap- 
olis, and  have  not  yet  received  a  line  from  you  or  any  one  else  from 
Hoosier. 

The  health  of  the  Fifty-third  is  now  improving,  but  we  have 
still  over  two  hundred  sick  men.     One  died  yesterday.     We  have 


178       LIFE     OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

measles  and  mumps  too.  Major  Martin  is  now  down  with  the 
mumps.    .    .    . 

The  force  up  here  is  very  large,  and  still  they  come.  The 
Rebels  are  reinforcing  from  Virginia,  which  they  can  do  very 
easily  by  rail. 

Unless  the  Rebels  retreat  there  will  be  a  big  battle  in  the  next 
two  weeks.     There  is  no  doubt  about  the  result. 

General  Grant  put  me  in  command  of  the  brigade  at  this 
place  this  morning.  It  consists  of  my  own  regiment,  one  from 
Illinois,  and  one  from  Missouri,  and  a  squadron  of  cavalry. 

The  further  south  I  go  the  more  I  am  satisfied  that  slavery 
destroys  the  life,  energy,  and  enterprise  of  the  people.  If  slavery 
existed  in  every  State  of  the  Union,  we  would  as  a  nation  be 
miserably  sluggish  and  stupid.  It  is  the  spirit,  intelligence,  and 
enterprise  of  the  people  of  the  Free  States  that  give  us  any  char- 
acter as  a  nation.  Outside  the  towns  in  the  South  the  people 
are  a  century  behind  the  Free  States.   .    .    . 

Savannah,  Tenn., 
March  29,  1862 

I  will  continue  to  write  though  I  have  not  yet  heard  a  word 
from  home  since  leaving  Indianapolis.  I  am  very  anxious  to  hear 
from  you,  for  I  don't  know  what  condition  you  and  the  children 
are  in.    .    .    . 

I  have  just  returned  from  Pittsburg,  ten  miles  above  here. 
It  is  my  misfortune  to  be  caught  up  on  court  martials  wherever  I 
go.  I  am  on  a  court  now,  and  we  are  trying  a  Missourian  for 
"conduct  unbecoming  a  soldier  and  a  gentleman." 

I  have  command  at  this  place.  My  brigade  consists  of  three 
regiments  of  infantry  and  three  companies  of  cavalry.  My  du- 
ties as  commander  of  the  post,  added  to  my  other  duties,  keep 
me  trotting  all  day.  I  would  not  have  so  much  to  do  if  my 
lieutenant-colonel  and  major  understood  their  duties,  so  that 
I  could  divide  the  labor.  I  continue  with  Tom's  aid  to  drill 
my  own  regiment.  Tom  drills  the  officers.  The  boys  are  im- 
proving in  health.  I  think  they  will  be  in  good  condition  in 
two  weeks. 

Can't  say  when  the  big  fight  will  come  off.  We  are  getting 
ready  for  it.    .    .    . 


THE    BATTLE    OF    SHILOH  179 

Savannah,  Tenn., 

April  3,  1862 

I  received  two  letters  from  you  the  other  day,  one  directed 
to  me  at  Indianapolis,  and  the  other  at  Nashville.  They  were  a 
little  old,  but  coming  from  home  they  were  interesting.  It  was 
a  great  relief  to  me  to  know  you  and  the  children  were  well. 

My  health  continues  good.  Even  at  times  when  almost  the 
entire  regiment  was  more  or  less  affected  with  colds  or  some  other 
sickness,  I  retained  my  health  and  vigor.  In  the  army  much 
depends  on  one's  will.  Many  men  die  from  faint-heartedness. 
They  become  slightly  indisposed  in  the  first  place,  then  imagine 
they  are  much  worse  than  they  really  are,  get  homesick,  the  sys- 
tem becomes  relaxed,  and  a  general  prostration  follows.  Then 
again  I  see  some  men  who  fight  disease  valiantly,  never  give  up, 
and  when  they  are  in  a  manner  gone,  they  seem  as  it  were  to  be 
struggling  with  death.  In  other  words,  the  physical  man  is  all 
gone,  and  the  will  is  still  hanging  on. 

The  health  of  the  Fifty-third  is  improving,  although  we  have 
lost  several  men  and  must  lose  several  more.  You  will  observe 
we  are  still  at  the  same  place  that  we  were  when  I  wrote  you  last. 
I  have  command  of  three  regiments  of  infantry  and  a  squadron 
of  cavalry. 

Am  very  well  pleased  with  my  own  regiment.  Am  weeding 
it  out  now.  I  forced  two  captains  to  resign  last  night.  They 
are  incompetent  and  I  determined  to  be  bothered  with  them  no 
longer.  I  can't  have  a  good  regiment  without  good  company 
officers,  and  I  am  determined  the  Fifty-third  shall  be  A  No.  1. 

Captain  Long  makes  an  efficient  officer.  Andrew  Jones  is 
now  second  lieutenant  in  his  company  and  he  makes  a  most 
capital  officer.  He  is  a  good  boy  and  a  fine  soldier.  Tom  is 
my  mainstay  in  the  regiment.  He  is  well  drilled  and  very  handy 
at  everything.  In  a  short  time  he  will  be  one  of  the  best  officers 
in  the  service.  Major  Martin  is  getting  up  again.  I  think  he 
will  do  very  well  when  he  gets  a  start. 

.  It  is  evident  that  the  fate  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  will  to  a 
great  extent  be  determined  by  that  fight  that  will  come  off  at 
Corinth.  I  think  the  Rebels  will  fight  at  that  point,  but  there 
is  no  telling  what  they  will  do.  If  they  are  driven  from  their 
position  up  here,  of  which  I  have  no  doubt,  Memphis  must  fall. 


180        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

The  weather  is  quite  warm  and  summer-like  here.  The 
trees  are  all  putting  out,  the  woods  are  beginning  to  look  green. 
This  would  be  nice  weather  for  us  to  make  garden,  if  I  were  at 
home,  but  next  spring  will  do  as  well,  I  hope. 

General  Grant  has  sent  for  a  paymaster  for  my  regiment,  but 
he  may  not  get  here  for  weeks,  so  you  had  better  get  some  money 
from  Mr.  Slaughter  to  supply  your  wants.  Don't  stint  yourself 
too  much.     I  can  afford  to  do  that  better  than  you  can. 

Savannah,  Tennessee, 

April  8,  1862 

You  will  hear  about  the  great  battle  at  Pittsburg  long  before 
this  reaches  you.  The  Rebels  attacked  our  forces  about  5  o'clock 
Sunday  morning,  with  determination  and  spirit.  The  battle 
raged  fiercely  all  day  Sunday,  and  at  dark  we  were  worsted  but 
were  not  defeated.  Sunday  evening  Buell's  forces  commenced 
arriving,  and  by  Monday  morning  25,000  of  them  were  on  the 
ground  for  the  fight.  The  contest  was  waged  with  much  spirit 
all  day  yesterday,  but  with  the  help  of  General  Buell's  men  the 
enemy  was  driven  off  the  field. 

The  fight  was  renewed  on  our  left  this  morning,  but  the  ene- 
my gave  way,  and  the  news  now  is  that  he  has  fallen  back  on 
Corinth. 

We  have  lost  in  killed  and  wounded  from  8,000  to  10,000 
men,  and  it  may  even  be  greater.  Almost  every  house  in  this 
town  is  filled  with  wounded.  The  Rebels  suffered  more  than  we 
did.  Their  loss  is  estimated  at  not  less  than  15,000  killed  and 
wounded. 

It  is  the  greatest  battle  that  has  ever  been  fought  on  this 
continent,  and  what  is  worst  of  all  to  me,  I  was  not  in  the  fight. 
When  the  battle  commenced  Sunday  morning,  General  Grant  was 
here,  and  I  at  once  went  and  asked  permission  to  go  up  with  my 
regiment,  and  his  reply  was  that  I  was  in  command  of  the  post  and 
it  was  no  time  to  make  any  change.  He  said  I  must  remain  here 
and  superintend  the  forwarding  of  reinforcements.  I  feel  miserable 
beyond  description,  but  I  can't  help  it.  It  seems  as  if  bad  luck 
attends  me.     Am  busy  day  and  night  here  now. 

General  Wallace  of  Illinois  is  now  in  my  room  mortally 
wounded.     He  will  die  to-night.     His  wife  is  with  him. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    SHILOH  181 

Savannah,  Tenn., 

April  12,  1862 

I  wrote  you  after  the  battle  and  I  hope  you  have  received 
the  letter  before  this,  for  no  doubt  you  will  be  somewhat  uneasy 
thinking  the  Fifty-third  had  a  part  in  the  fight. 

You  can  have  no  conception  of  the  amount  of  suffering  here. 
Men  lie  out  in  stables,  and  die  without  having  their  wounds 
dressed.  I  have  afforded  the  surgeons  every  facility  for  taking 
care  of  the  wounded,  but  they  are  inefficient.  They  all  seem  to 
have  a  mania  for  cutting  off  arms  and  legs,  and  in  that  way  pay  no 
attention  to  the  general  management  of  the  hospitals. 

We  have  had  confusion  confounded  here  for  a  week.  Gen- 
eral Buell's  army  hurried  ahead,  leaving  wagons,  sick,  etc.,  behind, 
—  all  of  which  is  now  here  without  commanders  or  anything  else. 
I  have  organized  the  masses  the  best  I  could,  and  put  officers 
selected  for  the  time  over  them,  and  in  that  manner  got  them 
something  to  eat. 

General  Grant  has  sent  me  word  that  I  would  be  taken  away 
from  here  in  a  few  days.  My  regiment  stands  higher  for  good 
conduct  and  discipline  than  any  other  regiment  in  the  division. 

There  will  evidently  be  another  big  fight  up  here  soon.  If 
the  Rebels  are  driven  from  the  line  of  the  railroads  now  they  are 
gone  up.     We  will  soon  clean  them  out. 

I  will  give  you  an  honest  account  of  the  casualties  of  the 
battle.  We  have  lost  in  killed  over  2,000  men,  in  wounded  5,000, 
prisoners  3,000.  That  is  too  small,  if  out  of  the  way  at  all.  The 
enemy's  loss  is:  killed  3,500,  wounded  6,000,  prisoners  900.  If 
this  is  out  of  the  way  it  is  in  being  too  small. 

Savannah,  Tenn., 

April  20,  1862 
The  great  battle  ceases  to  be  a  subject  of  interest  here.  The 
question  now  is,  Where  will  we  have  another?  It  is  hard  to  tell 
what  Beauregard  intends  to  do.  I  sometimes  think  he  is  going  to 
retreat  and  fall  back  on  some  point  further  south.  There  is  one 
thing  certain  now,  and  that  is,  he  can't  whip  the  Union  army. 
After  a  few  more  decisive  battles,  the  Rebels  will  be  apt  to  dis- 
perse in  small  guerrilla  bands  and  attempt  to  worry  us  that  way. 
I  am  curious  to  know  what  your  father  thinks  of  the  prospects  of 


182       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  Secesh  now.  Does  he  still  think  we  have  been  whipped  every 
time ;  and  if  he  does,  how  does  he  explain  the  fact  that  we  are  way- 
down  here  in  the  heart  of  Dixie?  I  wonder  if  he  will  admit  now 
that  the  Abolitionists,  as  he  calls  us,  will  fight.   .    .    . 

Supplementary  to  what  is  said  in  the  letter  of  April  8, 
about  asking  permission  lito  go  up  with  my  regiment,"  one 
of  my  husband's  stories,  told  with  much  detail,  was  that 
he  made  a  second  appeal  to  General  Grant  to  let  him  go  to 
Pittsburg  Landing.  ' '  I  followed  General  Grant  to  the  boat 
that  was  always  ready  to  take  him  to  Pittsburg  and  renewed 
my  request  to  go  up.  His  answer  was:  'You  can't  go; 
all  my  plans  are  made;  you  are  in  command  here  and 
must  remain  here.  But  you  must  urge  on  General  Buell 
and  his  men  to  push  forward.'" 

As  to  the  charge  that  General  Grant  had  been  drinking 
for  ten  days  prior  to  April  5,  my  husband  always  main- 
tained this  was  not  true.  Mornings  and  all  hours  of  the 
night  he  reported  to  General  Grant,  from  March  20  to  the 
Sunday  morning  they  were  startled  by  the  firing  at  Pitts- 
burg Landing,  and  never  during  that  time  was  there  any 
trace  of  strong  drink  on  or  about  General  Grant.  Further- 
more, that  charge  must  have  been  refuted  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Every  officer  who  had  come  in  con- 
tact with  General  Grant  at  this  time  was  required  to  make 
a  written  statement  as  to  when  and  where  and  under  what 
circumstances  he  had  seen  him  for  the  ten  days  prior  to 
the  battle.  Without  conclusions  and  opinions  of  any  kind, 
and  with  no  reference  to  the  report,  the  details  as  to  when 
and  where  General  Grant  was  met  and  seen  during  this 
period  were  so  complete  that  there  was  only  one  conclusion 
for  the  man  to  draw  who  read  them.  It  was  understood 
that  these  reports  were  to  go  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  They  were 
drafted  pursuant  to  the  directions  of  John  A.  Rawlins, 
Lincoln's  close  friend.  The  reports  never  saw  the  light 
of  day.  But  they  must  have  been  conclusive,  for,  although 
the  newspapers  kept  on  with  their  charges  against  General 


THE     BATTLE    OF     SHILOH  183 

Grant,  he  was  restored  to  his  command.  Rawlins  was  then 
a  colonel  on  General  Grant's  staff.  His  biography  has  been 
in  manuscript  form  for  years,  and  when  it  is  published  it  will 
reveal  him  as  one  of  the  strongest  characters  of  the  war.1 

Another*  story  my  husband  told  frequently  was  that 
General  Grant  had  a  day  or  two  before  the  attack  ordered 
General  Sherman  in  writing  to  advance  his  pickets,  in  order 
to  guard  against  a  surprise.  This  Sherman  failed  to  do. 
But  recovering  himself,  Sherman  fought  so  valiantly  the 
balance  of  the  day,  holding  the  right  flank  of  the  army 
south  of  the  bridge  across  Snake  Creek,  across  which 
Lew  Wallace  came  after  nightfall,  against  the  repeated 
assaults  of  the  Confederates,  that  Grant  protected  Sherman 
by  deliberately  suppressing  the  order.  Rawlins  and  Mc- 
Pherson  never  pardoned  Wallace  for  his  delay  in  getting  on 
the  field,  but  General  Grant,  before  his  death,  modified  his 
criticism  of  Wallace.  It  was  quite  right  for  Grant  to  pro- 
tect Sherman  for  ignoring  Halleck  and  the  War  Depart- 
ment, for  Grant  had  ordered  Sherman  up  the  Tennessee 
River  and  Sherman  had  obeyed.  Should  these  two  orders 
ever  be  published,  they  will  be  an  interesting  contribution 
to  the  real  history  of  the  war.  By  his  scouts  and  spies 
General  Grant  kept  posted  as  to  the  movements  of  the  Con- 
federate army.  It  is  of  record  that  Horace  Bell  rode  out 
of  Corinth  with  Hardee's  advices,  broke  away,  and  reached 
Lew  Wallace's  headquarters  two  days  before  Sherman  was 
surprised.2 

Colonel  Thomas  Worthington  of  the  Forty-sixth  Ohio 
was  a  son  of  an  early  Ohio  governor.  General  Sherman 
says  in  his  "Memoirs"  that  Colonel  Worthington  was  a  grad- 
uate of  West  Point  of  the  class  of  1825,  and  thought  he 
knew  more  about  how  the  war  should  be  conducted  than 
Grant,  Sherman,  and  all  the  rest  of  them.  But  General 
Sherman  does  not  tell  all  the  story.  In  the  early  Summer 
of    1862,    Colonel   Worthington,   in   a  pamphlet   that   was 

1  See  Chapter  XXIX,  especially  pages  463  and  464.  2  See  page  169. 


184       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

widely  distributed,  charged  that  General  Sherman  was  sur- 
prised at  Shiloh.  This,  according  to  my  husband,  "was 
just  the  course  that  General  Sherman  preferred  Colonel 
Worthington  should  take.  It  enabled  General  Sherman  to 
arrest  Colonel  Worthington  and  try  him  by  court  martial. 
The  charges  and  arrest  were  what  Colonel  Worthington 
expected  and  wished  for,  as  he  anticipated  it  would  enable 
him  to  prove  the  facts  as  to  the  surprise  and  the  existence 
of  General  Grant's  order  to  General  Sherman.  A  bright 
old  army  officer,  Colonel  Worthington  was  no  lawyer. 
He  did  not  appreciate  that  he  would  be  tried  for  insub- 
ordination and  that  the  truth  of  his  charges  was  no  justifi- 
cation for  attacking  his  superior  officer  in  the  public  press. 
The  course  Colonel  Worthington  should  have  taken  was  to 
prefer  charges  against  his  superior  officer  and  thus  have 
raised  the  question  of  surprise  fairly  and  legitimately." 

The  court  martial  sat  at  Memphis  in  August,  1862. 
It  was  composed  of  Brigadier-General  S.  A.  Hurlbut,  com- 
manding the  Fourth  Division;  Brigadier-General  Denver, 
Third  Brigade,  Fifth  Division;  Brigadier-General  Veatch, 
Second  Brigade,  Fourth  Division;  Colonel  Logan,  Thirty- 
second  Illinois  Infantry;  Colonel  Mungen,  Fifty-seventh 
Ohio  Infantry;  Colonel  Gresham,  Fifty-third  Indiana  In- 
fantry; Colonel  Sullivan,  Forty-eighth  Ohio  Infantry;  Col- 
onel Grierson,  Sixth  Illinois  Cavalry,  and  Captain  James 
C.  McCoy,  A.  D.  C,  Judge  Advocate.  Colonel  Worthing- 
ton was  found  guilty  and  was  dropped  from  the  rolls  by 
an  order  of  October  1,  1862.  The  order  was  revoked  Jan- 
uary 8,  1867,  and  it  was  then  ordered  that  he  should  be 
honorably  discharged  from  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
upon  tender  of  resignation,  to  date  November  21,  1862. 

Speaking  of  the  trial,  my  husband  said  that  the  first 
objection  made  on  behalf  of  Colonel  Worthington,  and  ar- 
gued out,  was  that  General  Sherman  should  not  be  permit- 
ted both  to  prefer  the  charges  and  name  the  court.  "I  was 
the  only  member  of  the  court  to  vote  to  sustain  the  objection;1 
it  seemed  to  me  then,  and  has  seemed  ever  since,  contrary 

iSee  page  159. 


THE     BATTLE    OF     SHILOH  185 

to  our  institutions  to  allow  the  accuser  to  name  the  court  to 
try  the  accused.  Other  members  of  the  court  were  lawyers 
by  profession  and  must  have  known  better  than  to  vote 
to  overrule  the  challenge."  There  is  not  a  reference  in  any 
of  the  biographies  or  in  the  Rebellion  Records  to  this 
trial.  General  Sherman  was  a  witness  before  the  court. 
In  the  course  of  his  testimony,  he  said,  according  to 
Colonel  Gresham  and  General  Sherman: 

"General  Grant  during  the  battle  rode  over  to  where 
I  was  and  said,  'How  is  it  going?'  'Bad  enough,  bad 
enough.'  But  looking  at  Grant  and  finding  him  so  unper- 
turbed, I  took  fresh  hope.  Grant  said,  'We  will  hold  our 
own,  keeping  the  enemy  at  bay  the  balance  of  the  day. 
At  night  the  enemy  will  be  in  possession  of  our  camp  and 
in  no  shape  to  resist  an  early  attack  in  the  morning,  when 
we  will  pounce  on  them  and  drive  them  pell  mell." 

I  have  met  many  Confederate  cavalrymen,  among  them 
"Private  John"  M.  Allen  of  Mississippi,  who  watered  their 
horses  in  the  Tennessee  River  the  afternoon  of  the  first  day, 
but  as  Colonel  Gresham  said,  "John,  it  was  up  the  river 
towards  the  mouth  of  Lick  Creek,  four  miles  above  the 
mouth  of  Snake  Creek."  At  the  time  of  this  conversation 
John  M.  Allen  was  a  member  of  Congress.  "The  first  time 
I  saw  greenbacks,"1  said  "Private  John,"  "was  that  early 
morning  in  General  Sherman's  deserted  camp.  We  con- 
sidered them  shin -plasters  and  not  worth  carrying  off." 

To  his  dying  day  Walter  Q.  Gresham  believed  General 
Grant's  plan,  without  the  aid  of  a  single  man  of  Buell's 
army,  would  have  succeeded  on  the  second  day's  battle. 
General  Grant's  action  in  reorganizing  his  army  under 
fire,  as  it  were,  and  his  magnanimity  to  General  Sherman 
satisfied  his  subordinates  that  his  leadership  was  invincible. 
George  R.  Peck,  a  distinguished  lawyer,  who  served  in 
another  army  than  either  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  or  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland,  was  of  the  opinion  that  because 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  not  in  the  battle  of  Shiloh  his 
conclusions  and  the  reasons  that  supported  them  should 
be  made  a  matter  of  record. 

1  See  Chapter  XXVII,  page  420. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
CORINTH   AND   MEMPHIS 


siege  and  evacuation  of  corinth memphis  evac- 
uated  general  grant  opens  up  vicksburg  campaign 

Sherman's  movement  down  the  river — fourth  of  july 

in    the    confederacy  —  gresham    does   the    talking 

robert  dale   owen's   letter  to   secretary   chase   on 

abolition internal  conditions  in  grant's  army how 

abolitionism  was  brought  about  —  at  collierville  — 

gresham    develops    typhoid rift    between    gresham 

and  governor  morton  widened. 

GENERAL  Grant  says  in  his  ''Memoirs"  (page  376), 
"On  the  30th  of  April  the  Grand  Army  commenced  its 
advance  on  Corinth."  General  Halleck  was  in  command, 
while  General  Grant,  who  had  not  yet  been  restored  to  the 
position  for  which  nature  had  fitted  him,  constituted  a 
sort  of  fifth  wheel  to  the  wagon.  The  Grand  Army  was 
composed  of  the  right  wing,  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee, 
commanded  by  General  George  H.  Thomas;  the  center, 
the  Army  of  the  Ohio,  under  General  Buell;  and  the  left 
wing,  the  Army  of  the  Mississippi,  led  by  General  Pope. 

The  Fifty-third  Indiana  Volunteers  was  on  the  left  of 
General  Hurlbut's  division,  the  fourth  of  the  Seventeenth 
army  corps,  which  was  the  extreme  right  of  the  right  wing 
or  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee. 

At  this  time  my  husband  wrote  me  from  the  field  as 
follows : 

Pittsburg,  Tenn., 

April  25,  1862 

The  last  time  I  wrote  we  were  under  marching  orders  to  this 
place.     We  came  out  here  twelve  miles  from  Corinth  yesterday. 

186 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  187 

We  disembarked  at  Pittsburg  Landing  early  in  the  morning,  and 
took  the  rain  and  mud.  You  can  have  very  little  idea  of  a  march 
over  bad  roads,  and  in  the  rain.  I  was  in  the  rain  all  day  and 
now  feel  better  than  I  have  for  a  week. 

We  are  on  the  front  line  in  the  advance,  so  you  may  safely 
count  on  our  being  in  the  next  fight.  I  asked  permission  to  bring 
my  regiment  to  the  front  and  now  we  must  behave  well. 

Fields  of  Shiloh, 

April  29,  1862 

We  received  news  of  the  fall  of  New  Orleans  yesterday,  and 
when  the  boys  were  told  the  glad  tidings,  on  dress  parade,  it  would 
have  done  you  good  to  have  heard  those  hearty  cheers. 


In  the  Field, 
May  3,  1862 

We  are  now  camped  on  a  high  ridge,  affording  a  fine  view 
over  into  Mississippi.  We  are  still  in  the  advance.  The  other 
day  I  met  General  Sherman,  the  man  who  was  in  command  in 
Kentucky.  He  was  very  cordial.  I  wanted  to  get  in  his  division 
and  he  was  anxious  for  it  himself,  but  we  were  not  able  to 
make  the  arrangement. 


Camp  in  the  Fields, 
Five  and  a  Half  Miles  from  Corinth, 

May  10,  1862 

We  have  been  moving  so  much  for  the  last  week  that  I  have 
had  little  or  no  opportunity  to  write.  We  were  ordered  to  be 
ready  at  8  o'clock  Sunday  morning  with  four  days'  cooked  rations 
in  our  haversacks.  The  time  arrived  and  the  Fifty- third  was 
ready  in  line  to  march,  but  we  were  delayed  by  other  divisions 
till  nearly  11  o'clock,  at  which  time  it  had  commenced  to  rain. 
Such  another  day  I  never  saw.  The  heavens  seemed  to  have 
opened  and  the  water  descended  in  torrents.  You  can  imagine 
what  condition  the  roads  in  a  swampy  country  would  be  in  after 
thousands  of  wagons  and  horses  and  heavy  artillery  had  passed 


188       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

over  them.  We  tramped  along  all  day.  Sometimes  the  mud 
was  so  deep  that  my  line  would  mire.  I  let  the  men  select  the  best 
ground  they  could,  but  they  were  mostly  in  mud  from  half  leg 
to  knee  deep. 

We  camped  about  dark  —  that  is,  we  bivouaced  for  the  night, 
without  tents  or  anything  else,  and  took  the  rain.  It  rained 
incessantly  all  night,  or  more  properly  speaking,  poured  down  all 
night.  I  took  it  for  twenty  hours  without  any  covering,  not 
even  a  gum  blanket.  I  was  just  as  wet  as  one  could  be  made, 
and  continued  so  until  my  clothes  dried  on  my  back.  What  is 
strange  to  me,  I  stood  it  all  finely,  and  can  really  believe  it  did  me 
good.  I  have  been  well  ever  since,  so  you  see  that  what  I  have 
always  told  you,  that  "I  am  hard  as  iron,"  is  true. 

Tom  stood  the  march  well,  and  he  is  now  — I  almost  said  as 
ugly  as  ever,  but  I  have  no  advantages  over  him  in  that  way,  for 
I  am  almost  as  black  as  any  half-breed  in  Tennessee. 

We  are  now  close  to  Corinth;  their  pickets  are  in  sight,  and 
we  are  hourly  expecting  the  order  to  go  forward.  Halleck  is 
approaching  slowly  and  cautiously;  he  doesn't  intend  to  be  sur- 
prised. Some  think  the  Rebels  will  evacuate  Corinth,  but  I  do 
not.  They  are  bound  to  fight  now,  or  "give  up  the  ghost."  I 
feel  confident  we  will  whip  them.  We  are  on  the  extreme  left  of 
General  Hurlbut's  division,  a  point  of  danger  and  honor,  and  we 
intend  to  do  our  duty.  What  is  very  strange  to  me  is  the  fact 
that  the  closer  we  get  to  the  enemy  the  less  apprehensions  I  have. 
So  far  as  danger  is  concerned,  I  feel  now  just  about  the  same  way 
that  I  would  at  home  with  you  and  the  children. 

I  am  in  earnest  when  I  say  that  it  looks  as  if  the  war  was  fast 
drawing  to  a  close.  McClellan  has  taken  Yorktown  and  I  think 
Richmond  by  this  time.  We  have  New  Orleans,  and  when  the 
enemy  is  driven  from  Corinth,  what  can  they  do?  Deserters  are 
constantly  coming  in,  and  they  concur  in  the  statement  that  the 
Rebel  army  is  getting  out  of  heart.  They  have  been  driven  so 
much  that  they  are  now  beginning  to"  believe  the  Union  army  is 
invincible. 

I  think  we  will  leave  here  to-night  or  to-morrow  morning; 
likely  in  the  morning,  for  Sunday  is  always  a  march  day.  I  have 
not  had  a  letter  from  you  for  a  long  time.  Write  often  for  nothing 
affords  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  hear  from  my  wife  and  baby. 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  189 

In  the  Field, 
May  13,  1862 
Up  in  line  of  battle  at  4  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  pickets 
are  banging  away  at  each  other  all  the  time.  Some  one  is  killed 
every  day.  Within  the  next  week  I  think  we  will  certainly  know 
which  of  the  two  contending  armies  is  the  superior.  Our  army 
is  full  of  spirit  and  determination.  If  the  enemy  whips  us  they  will 
do  harder  fighting  than  they  ever  have  done.  Yet  they  must  not 
whip  us.  We  can't  afford  to  be  whipped  down  here.  We  teach 
the  men  it  is  victory  or  death,  for  we  could  never  retreat. 

On  the  Picket  Line, 

May  20,  1862 
Two  companies'  captains  —  Long  and  Daily  —  deployed  along 
the  brow  of  a  hill.  The  enemy  was  in  the  brush  just  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill,  distant  about  150  to  250  yards.  Young  Adams  of 
Company  "B"  of  Clark  County  fell,  mortally  wounded.  He  died 
in  less  than  an  hour.  From  letters  and  a  photograph  we  found  on 
his  body,  we  learned  that  he  was  engaged  to  be  married.  General 
Hurlbut  then  sent  forward  a  battery  supported  by  our  brigade  and 
we  drove  the  enemy  off.  Last  night  we  slept  on  our  arms,  ready 
for  an  attack.  We  could  hear  the  cars  moving  and  departing 
from  Corinth  just  as  distinctly  as  if  we  had  been  there. 

May  22,   1862 
We  drove  the  enemy's  rear  guard  in. 

May  25,   1862 
Some  think  the  Rebels  will  not  fight  at  Corinth.     I  think 
they  will,  and  perhaps  more  desperately  than  they  have  any  time 
yet. 

May  27,   1862 

It  is  not  yet  quite  light.  We  are  under  arms  every  morning 
from  3  to  4  o'clock.  Frequently  we  are  in  line  at  3  o'clock  in 
the  morning  and  remain  in  that  position  till  after  daylight.  We 
have  warm  days  and  cold  nights. 

This  is  a  miserable  country.  I  have  not  seen  a  church  (except- 
ing Shiloh  Church  on  the  battle  field)  or  a  schoolhouse  since  we 
left  the  Tennessee  River.     That  of  itself  is  enough  to  give  you 

13 


igo       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

some  idea  of  the  character  of  the  people  of  Northern  Mississippi. 
The  country  is  not  so  poor,  for  we  have  passed  many  fine  cotton 
farms,  but  slavery  and  intelligence  never  go  together,  and  that 
accounts  for  the  whole  thing. 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers 
Near  Corinth,   May  31,    1862 

Well,  Corinth  is  evacuated  at  last!  We  ascertained  yesterday 
morning  that  the  enemy  had  skedaddled,  and  it  was  not  long 
until  I  had  ocular  proof  of  the  correctness  of  the  report.  In  com- 
pany with  half  a  dozen  officers,  I  rode  over  the  earthworks  and 
went  into  the  famous  stronghold  of  Beauregard.  There  is  no 
doubt  about  the  strength  of  the  enemy's  position — the  breast- 
works extended  around  in  a  semicircle  for  miles  and  miles.  We 
rode  for  hours,  and  did  not  then  get  around  them.  At  places  it 
seemed  that  we  never  could  have  made  any  headway,  for  the 
works  are  thrown  up  in  such  a  manner  that  we  would  have  been 
forced  to  march  over  swamps  and  fallen  trees,  and  all  the  time 
under  the  enemy's  fire.  His  weakest  position  was  immediately 
in  our  front,  the  right  wing.  We  could  have  taken  the  works  in 
front  of  us  by  storm,  and  we  would  have  done  it  the  day  we 
marched  out  and  engaged  the  enemy,  if  we  had  not  been  held 
back. 

I  wrote  you  yesterday  about  our  work  the  day  before,  when 
we  had  two  men  killed  and  two  wounded.  Well,  where  we  stopped 
Thursday  night  and  threw  up  our  breastworks  is  not  more  than 
six  hundred  yards  from  the  Rebel  breastworks.  I  thought  that 
day,  and  so  told  General  Veatch,  that  we  ought  to  go  further,  but 
he  was  fearful  of  falling  into  a  trap,  and  then  he  was  acting  under 
orders  himself.  I  was,  as  the  boys  sometimes  say,  keen  for  a  fight 
that  day.     As  it  was,  we  had  a  right  sharp  little  battle. 

I  will  now  go  on  with  a  description  of  my  journey  to  Corinth. 
We  left  the  line  of  earthworks,  which  average  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  Corinth,  and  rode  into  town,  finding  it  almost  deserted,  few 
families  remaining.  It  is  a  town  of  some  twelve  hundred  inhabit- 
ants, judging  from  appearances,  and  the  most  lovely  looking  vil- 
lage I  ever  saw.  The  town  is  new,  being  built  up  in  the  small  oak 
timber,  which  affords  fine  shade.  Then  the  yards  and  gardens 
are  spacious  and  beautiful  beyond  anything  I  have  ever  seen  in  a 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  191 

small  town.  Many  of  the  homes  are  models.  But  then,  the 
terrible  ravages  of  war  have  destroyed  the  comfort  and  happiness 
of  that  hitherto  quiet  and  gay  Mississippi  town. 

As  I  approached  the  railroad  I  began  to  see  evidence  of  the 
destruction  of  property  that  always  follows  the  retreat  of  the 
Rebel  army.  All  the  railroad  property,  such  as  depots,  machine 
shops,  etc.,  were  burning.  Close  by  was  a  large  quantity  of  cot- 
ton, still  burning. 

Where  the  Rebels  have  gone  we  can't  tell.  We  learn  that  the 
army  divided,  the  greater  portion  retreating  south;  the  balance 
went  in  the  direction  of  Grand  Junction  and  Memphis.  I  suppose 
we  will  follow.  It  seems  to  be  understood  in  the  camp  that  the 
right  wing  of  our  army  will  go  to  Memphis.  I  hope  that  is  true, 
but  I  don't  know  that  it  is.  t 

June  6,  1862,  Memphis  was  evacuated,  as  it  was  antici- 
pated it  would  be  in  the  event  of  the  success  of  the  expedi- 
tion to  Corinth;  or  as  my  husband  had  stated  to  me  in 
the  letter  of  March  20,  from  Savannah,  in  the  event  of  the 
success  of  the  attempt  to  take  possession  of  the  Memphis 
&  Charleston  Railroad.  But  instead  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  120,000  men  marching  immediately  on  Vicksburg,  as 
General  Grant  says  in  his  ' '  Memoirs ' '  it  should  have  done  on 
the  fall  of  Corinth,  leaving  only  enough  men  to  garrison 
Corinth,  General  Halleck  divided  it  up. 

Fortunately  for  the  cause  of  the  Union,  General  Halleck 
on  July  17  went  to  Washington  as  commander-in-chief, 
while  General  Grant  was  restored  to  the  position  of  com- 
mander in  the  field. 

"The  most  anxious  period  of  the  war  to  me,"  said  Gen- 
eral Grant  ("Memoirs,"  page  395),  "was  during  the  time  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee  was  guarding  the  territory  acquired 
by  the  fall  of  Corinth  and  Memphis,  and  before  I  was 
sufficiently  reinforced  to  take  the  offensive. ' '  General  Grant 
tells  us  his  troops  were  so  disposed  that  he  might  move 
them  from  one  point  to  another  to  reinforce  as  the  occasion 
might  require,  and  that  there  was  much  fighting,  marching 


192       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  countermarching,  which  was  little  noticed  outside  of 
the  army. 

The  following  are  letters  from  the  field  at  this  period: 

In  Camp  near  Grand  Junction, 
June  21,  1862 

I  have  but  little  time  to  write.  You  can  see  by  referring  to 
the  map  that  we  are  about  midway  between  Corinth  and  Mem- 
phis. We  reached  this  place  last  Sunday;  Monday  evening  we 
started  on  a  forced  march  to  Holly  Springs,  thirty  miles  distant. 

My  men  stood  the  march  remarkably  well ;  better  by  far  than 
any  other  regiment  in  the  brigade.  If  you  could  have  seen  the 
poor  fellows  with  the  blood  oozing  from  every  toe,  and  never 
murmuring,  you  would  have  pitied  them,  I  know.  Well,  the 
Rebels  filed  out  just  before  we  got  to  Holly  Springs,  and  after 
remaining  there  about  twenty-four  hours,  we  took  the  back  track 
and  got  back  here  Thursday  about  noon.  I  have  my  men  so 
that  they  will  go  till  they  drop  in  their  tracks  before  they  will 
give  up.  When  other  regiments  scattered  their  men  all  along 
the  road,  the  Fifty-third  kept  together,  not  losing  a  man  by 
the  way.  I  am  proud  of  my  regiment,  for  I  know  they  will  do 
whatever  I  want  them  to  do.  Yesterday  evening  for  the  first 
time  for  nearly  two  weeks  we  got  a  meal. 

We  are  now  in  a  magnificent  country;  fine  plantations  and 
good  water.  The  health  of  the  regiment  is  improving  amaz- 
ingly. Tell  Captain  Long  his  company  is  getting  along  finely, 
and  it  is  much  larger  than  when  he  left.  His  men  are  very  anxious 
for  him  to  return.  I  hope  he  will  recover  his  health,  but  I  want 
him  to  stay  at  home  until  he  gets  well.  Tell  him  to  be  patient. 
I  will  see  that  he  has  no  trouble  about  his  absence. 

I  don't  know  how  you  have  heard  that  I  have  been  sick.  I 
have  not  been  off  duty  a  day  since  we  left  Indianapolis.  True, 
at  times  I  have  not  been  awfully  well,  but  I  have  never  been  sick, 
and  now  my  health  is  very  good. 

LaGrange,  Tenn., 

July  8,  1862 
Well,  we  have  been  to  Holly  Springs   again.     We   got   there 
Sunday  morning.     I  was  then  ordered  to  Grand  Junction,  about 


CORINTH    AND     MEMPHIS  193 

twenty-one  miles.,  We  started  about  daylight  and  marched  the 
whole  distance  by  2  o'clock.  At  the  Junction  I  found  the  Twenty- 
third  Indiana,  or  rather,  six  companies  of  it;  the  Twentieth  Ohio, 
the  Sixty-eighth  Ohio,  two  batteries  and  one  company  of  cavalry, 
with  no  kind  of  order  or  discipline— the  soldiers  every  place  but 
the  right  place  and  the  officers  at  hotels.  I  at  once  issued  an  order 
requiring  all  officers  and  soldiers  immediately  to  go  to  their  respec- 
tive camps  and  remain  there  except  when  it  became  necessary  to 
leave  on  business.  I  appointed  a  provost  marshal,  gave  him  a 
strong  guard,  and  sent  him  out  in  town  to  arrest  the  stragglers, 
officers  and  men.  Believe  me,  I  soon  cleaned  up  the  place  and 
the  citizens  expressed  themselves  as  highly  pleased  with  my 
action.     After  that  I  had  no  trouble. 

On  the  morning  of  the  Fourth,  a  number  of  citizens,  a  large 
committee,  called  on  me  to  know  whether  we  would  join  them  in 
celebrating  the  national  anniversary.  I  promptly  responded  in 
the  affirmative.  In  a  short  time  they  returned  and  said:  "Possi- 
bly you  can  appreciate  why  all  our  speakers  are  ;ust  now  absent." 
And  then  I  saw  I  was  in  for  it.  They  selected  me  to  do  the  speak- 
ing. I  could  not  decline  and  had  no  time  to  prepare,  so  I  went 
at  it  extemporaneously.  I  gave  them  a  good  sound  Union  talk, 
and  explained  to  the  natives  what  we  were  fighting  for,  which 
seemed  to  please  many  of  them  very  much.  They  have  been 
taught  to  believe  that  we  are  all  Abolitionists. 

Yesterday  General  Hurlbut  came  back  to  LaGrange,  and  I 
was  ordered  to  join  my  old  brigade,  and  accordingly  came  down 
here  yesterday  evening.  We  are  likely  to  remain  here  or  some- 
where else  along  the  Memphis  &  Charlestown  Railway  until  fall, 
unless  we  go  to  Vicksburg,  which  is  not  improbable. 

The  weather  is  very  hot  here  now,  but  we  have  a  nice  breeze 
nearly  all  the  time.  The  mercury  gets  up  over  100  every  day. 
My  health  is  good;  I  feel  fine  now.  I  was  a  little  unwell  for  a  few 
days  last  week,  but  not  to  amount  to  anything. 

I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  on  the  Fourth  I  dined  with  a  right 
good  Union  man  by  the  name  of  Smith.  He  came  in  the  morn- 
ing and  invited  me  to  come  out  at  3  o'clock  and  bring  four  or 
five  of  my  friends  with  me.  I  took  Lieutenant-Colonel  Force, 
of  the  Twentieth  Ohio,  Major  Davis,  and  a  few  others,  and  be 
assured  we  did  justice  to  the  table.     The  dinner  was  sumptuous. 


194       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

I  heard  with  great  sorrow  of  the  death  of  Captain  Long, 
another  victim  of  this  wicked  rebellion.  He  was  patriotic,  brave, 
and  generous — there  was  no  better  man  in  the  army.  In  him 
I  have  lost  a  true  and  most  devoted  friend,  but  my  loss  is  nothing 
compared  with  that  of  his  poor  wife  and  children. 

I  am  not  mistaken  about  being  able  to  stand  this  life.  I  have 
been  at  it  long  enough  to  know  now;  so  much  depends  on  a  man's 
will.  I  might  have  been  sick  several  times  if  I  had  consented 
to  it.  Our  regiment  has  seen  more  hard  service  than  any  other 
regiment  in  this  army,  for  the  time  we  have  been  out,  and  while 
we  were  before  Corinth  we  did  more  heavy  skirmishing  than  any 
other  regiment  in  our  division. 

I  must  get  to  work.  Do  the  best  you  can;  be  of  good  cheer, 
for  this  state  of  things  will  not  last  always.  When  my  time  is 
out  in  the  army,  I  shall  consider  that  I  am  yours. 

Moscow,  Tenn., 

July  12,  1862 
All  well;  not  a  sick  man  in  the  regiment.      Every  man  we 
have  marched  twenty-five  miles  yesterday,  carrying  from  thirty 
to  forty  pounds. 

Memphis,  Tenn., 
July  22,  1862 
We  arrived  here  yesterday  evening,  after  a  terrible  march 
of  four  days.  I  had  four  or  five  cases  of  sunstroke  in  my  regi- 
ment, but  fortunately  they  all  recovered.  We  were  more  fortu- 
nate than  many  other  regiments.  The  Fifty-third  Illinois  had 
three  men  fall  dead  in  their  tracks  day  before  yesterday. 

Daily  letters  came  urging  me  to  come  to  Memphis.  In 
response,  I  started,  going  by  river  on  a  through  boat.  It 
was  early  in  the  morning  when  we  landed  at  Memphis,  and 
my  husband  was  there  to  meet  me.  We  went  to  the  Gayoso 
House,  which  was  then  a  good  hotel. 

It  was  there  that  I  first  met  both  General  Sherman 
and  General  McPherson.  General  Sherman's  greeting  was 
warmth  itself.  He  told  me  how  my  husband  delighted 
him  when  he  came  to  report  to  him  the  year  before  at 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  195 

Muldrough  Hill,  Kentucky.1  General  Sherman  introduced 
me  to  General  McPherson  as,  "Mrs.  Gresham,  the  wife  of 
one  of  my  best  Kentucky  colonels."  Silent  and  taciturn, 
McPherson  was  the  antithesis  of  Sherman  in  temperament. 

The  talk  was  of  Grant  and  Vicksburg.  And  the  man 
next  most  talked  about  was  Colonel  John  A.  Rawlins, 
General  Grant's  chief  of  staff.  Almost  forgotten  by  the 
present  generation,  when  the  real  history  of  the  war  is 
written  Rawlins  will  be  one  of  its  most  prominent  char- 
acters. Certainly  they  were  going  to  clean  the  country 
to  the  Gulf  of  armed  resistance.  There  may  have  been 
doubt  and  uncertainty  at  Washington  and  in  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  as  it  is  recorded,  but  the  men  I  met  then  and 
afterwards  believed  that  as  sure  as  the  sun  shone  they 
would  succeed.  They  all  believed  in  General  Grant's  ability 
to  lead  them.  I  heard  then  how  McPherson  was  General 
Grant's  superior  in  military  learning  and  engineering,  and 
yet  depended  absolutely  on  Grant's  judgment  and  executive 
ability. 

It  was  during  this  visit  that  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was 
serving  on  the  general  court  martial  that  was  then  sitting  at 
Fort  Pickering.2  The  camp  of  the  Fifty- third  was  out  of  Mem- 
phis a  short  distance.  I  ate  the  army  meals  and  made  cake 
in  the  camp,  but  only  enough  for  a  taste,  as  one  officer  said. 

The  Gayoso  House  was  crowded  with  men,  so  we  went 
to  board  with  a  Mrs.  Fackler,  who  had  a  fine  residence  in 
the  best  part  of  the  city  and  not  far  from  the  camp  of  the 
Fifty-third.  She  gave  us  elegant  dinners.  Her  husband, 
who,  it  was  said,  had  served  on  Albert  Sidney  Johnson's 
staff  at  Shiloh,  was  then  a  colonel  in  the  Confederate  army. 
She  was  an  accomplished,  refined  woman,  with  several  small 
children.  She  took  me  to  the  stores  to  get  some  needed 
summer  clothing  and  treated  me  as  a  guest.3  We  discussed 
everything  that  women  do,  but  one  subject  we  avoided, — 

iSee  page  158.  2  See  page  184. 

3 In  a  letter  of  August  20  from  Memphis,  Colonel  Gresham  says:   "I  have  not  seen  Mrs. 
Fackler  since  you  left,  but  I  will  see  her  soon  on  your  account." 


196       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

that  was  the  War.  One  object  she  had  in  keeping  boarders 
was  the  protection  the  presence  of  Federal  officers  afforded. 
Aside  from  ourselves  there  were  several  officers  and  their 
wives  with  her.  Many  Confederates  foolishly  abandoned 
Memphis,  and  their  houses  were  sacked.  While  we  were 
at  Mrs.  Fackler's,  the  house  next  door,  whose  owner  had 
abandoned  it,  was  occupied  by  a  lieutenant  and  much  des- 
truction was  done  to  the  contents.  I  was  visiting  camps 
and  enjoying  myself  when  in  ten  days  my  visit  was  cut 
short  by  the  regiment  being  ordered  to  Bolivar. 

No  one  could  hear  the  officers  talk  and  feel  their  force 
and  power  without  sharing  something  of  their  conviction 
and  enthusiasm  which  went  down  to  the  men,  the  "boys" 
in  the  ranks.  I  made  no  mistake  in  my  estimate  of  the 
men  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  that  I  met  on  that  trip 
to  Memphis.  When  I  reached  home  I  told  my  father  what 
I  had  heard  and  seen,  and  that  henceforth  I  would  bet  on 
the  Union.  I  was  always  something  of  a  speculator  on  the 
safe  side.1  I  astonished  him  when  I  said,  "My  savings, 
which  I  hope  and  pray  I  will  never  need,  will  go  into  gov- 
ernment bonds."  And  he  was  still  Irish  enough  to  see  the 
humor  when  I  asked  him  if  he  still  thought  one  Reb  was 
equal  to  five  Yanks,  and  if  he  thought  that  Abolitionist 
husband  of  mine  would  fight. 

September  15,  1862,  my  first  letter  came  from  Bolivar. 
It  told  of  a  march  of  90  miles,  a  roundabout  way,  averaging 
18  miles  a  day.  "Good  marching  through  the  heat  and 
dust. ' '  I  received  many  letters  from  Bolivar.  The  Twenty- 
third  Indiana  was  there.  "I  got  a  paper  yesterday,  the  first 
since  I  left  Memphis, ' '  wrote  Colonel  Gresham.  '  'The  Rebels 
are  having  a  good  time  just  now.  Pope  is  a  miserable  hum- 
bug. I  predicted  disaster  when  he  was  put  in  command 
in  Virginia.  Our  soldiers  are  very  much  chagrined  at  our 
recent  bad  luck.  They  are  clamoring  to  be  led  against  the 
enemy.     All  they  want  is  to  be  allowed  to  fight." 

1  See  page  634. 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  197 

It  was  while  the  Fifty-third  Indiana  was  at  Bolivar, 
Tennessee,  that  the  victories  in  the  open  in  September 
over  the  commands  of  Generals  Van  Dorn  and  Price,  and 
the  failure  of  the  attack  of  Van  Dorn,  Price,  and  Villes- 
pique  on  Corinth,  October  4,  1862,  left  General  Grant 
free  to  open  up  his  Vicksburg  campaign  down  the  Missis- 
sippi Central  Railroad  through  the  center  of  the  State. 
But  this  movement  General  Grant  says  was  a  feint.  The 
real  movement  was  led  by  General  Sherman  and  was  by 
steamboats  down  the  river.  This  joint  movement,  which 
General  Grant  inaugurated  with  half  the  men  General 
Halleck  had  May  31,  1862,  when  Corinth  fell,  began  No- 
vember 2,  1862. 

But  progress  was  slow.  With  General  Grant's  army 
was  the  Fifty- third  and  its  Colonel.  Under  date  of  No- 
vember 5,  letters  began  to  come  from  the  old  camp  near 
LaGrange,  Tennessee.     There  was  criticism  of  the  delay. 

I  still  believe  the  Union  will  be  maintained  in  spite  of  all  the 
blundering  of  commanding  officers.     .     .     . 

We  have  an  army  concentrated  at  this  place  large  enough  to 
whip  anything  in  front  of  us.  Our  supplies  are  brought  over  the 
Mobile  &  Ohio  Railroad,  that  being  che  only  road  now  open  to 
us.  The  road  from  here  to  Memphis,  44  miles,  is  being  repaired. 
When  it  is  opened  there  will  be  but  little  trouble  experienced  in 
feeding  the  army.  It  is  160  miles  by  rail  to  Columbus,  Ken- 
tucky. There  is  not  enough  in  this  county  to  subsist  an  army  if 
supplies  from  home  were  cut  off.  You  can  have  no  idea  of  the 
destructive  effects  of  war  until  you  see  it  with  your  own  eyes. 
There  never  was  a  people  in  the  world  who  rushed  so  madly 
and  blindly  upon  their  own  destruction  as  those  of  the  South 
have  done. 

At  LaGrange  Colonel  Gresham  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Mrs.  Clay  and  her  daughter,  cousins  of  the  Rebel  "sen- 
ator from  Alabama.  "Mrs.  Clay  is  a  widow  with  three 
sons  in  the  Rebel  army.  She  and  her  daughter  live  close 
to  our  camp.     They  are  strong  Secesh." 


198       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

The  following  letters  from  my  husband  are  of  interest 
at  this  point: 

Near  LaGrange,  Tenn., 

November  26,  1862 

I  was  attacked  last '  Saturday  with  what  the  doctors  call 
bilious  pneumonia.  I  was  quite  sick  for  a  while  but  am  much 
better  now,  and  expect  to  be  out  again  soon.  I  remained  in  camp 
until  Monday,  when  the  boys  removed  me  to  a  private  house 
close  by — that  of  the  Widow  Clay,  as  she  is  called  here.  Since 
yesterday  morning  I  have  been  able  to  sit  up  part  of  the  time, 
and  now  I  am  feeling  quite  well  with  the  exception  of  soreness  in 
my  right  lung. 

The  pain  was  very  severe  Saturday  night,  Sunday,  and 
Sunday  night.  I  found  great  relief  this  time  in  severe  cupping 
and  blistering.  I  should  have  stated  that  I  was  taken  with  a 
chill  which  was  followed  by  fever  from  which  I  was  not  relieved 
until  yesterday.  Although  I  am  not  looking  and  feeling  as  well 
as  I  would  like,  still  I  am  not  looking  half  so  bad  as  you  would  be 
apt  to  imagine. 

I  have  written  you  the  honest  truth  about  myself  for  I  want 
you  to  know  that  you  can  depend  on  what  I  say.  Dr.  Slaughter 
is  a  most  excellent  physician;  he  has  been  very  kind  to  me,  and  has 
been  with  me  ever  since  I  left  camp.  Mrs.  Clay  is  very  kind  to 
me;  in  fact,  I  think  she  is  one  of  the  noblest  women  I  ever  met. 
She  has  taken  as  much  interest  in  nursing  me  and  having  it  done 
as  if  I  had  been  her  son,  notwithstanding,  as  I  have  before  written 
you,  she  has  three  sons  in  the  Rebel  army,  and  she  is  as  strong 
Secesh  as  Mrs.  Slaughter  is  Union.  Her  daughter  is  as  charming 
as  ever.     She  is.  playing  the  piano  now. 

Dr.  Slaughter  has  just  come  in  and  informed  me  that  he  has 
learned  that  we  will  likely  be  on  the  move  by  the  last  of  the  week. 
Our  destination  will  probably  be  Holly  Springs,  where  we  will 
remain  until  General  McClernand  starts  down  the  Mississippi 
with  his  expedition. 

Dr.  Slaughter  has  just  come  in  again  with  word  that  our 
brigade  has  orders  to  march  this  morning.  I  can't  go  as  soon 
as  that  and  don't  think  any  such  orders  have  been  issued. 
I  could  not  get  home  should  I  try;  so  be  contented.  I  am 
doing  well. 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  199 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers, 
Lumpkins  Mills,  Miss.,  December  3,  1862 

We  are  now  ten  miles  south  of  Holly  Springs.  The  regiment 
started  from  LaGrange  Friday  morning  about  daylight.  Not 
being  entirely  well  I  remained  behind  until  1  o'clock  and  then 
broke  away  and  caught  up.  We  arrived  here  Sunday  evening, 
and  will  move  on  in  the  morning.  A  portion  of  our  forces  are 
now  at  Tallahatchie,  the  Rebels  having  fallen  back  after  feeble 
resistance.  They  are  now  retreating  down  the  Mississippi  Central 
Railroad  in  the  direction  of  Granada.  It  is  supposed  they  will 
make  a  stand  at  Grenada  or  some  other  point  south  of  us.  I  am 
unable  to  understand  why  they  did  not  give  us  battle  at  Talla- 
hatchie River.  Thus  far  there  has  been  nothing  serious  attending 
our  advance  —  some  skirmishing,  and  we  have  taken  a  few  hundred 
prisoners.  Grant  has  the  flower  of  the  West,  a  much  larger  army 
than  you  imagine.  Sherman  has  joined  us  from  Memphis,  and  it 
is  reported  in  camp,  and  I  suppose  it  is  true,  that  Steel  has  joined 
us  from  Helena. 

I  have  entirely  recovered  from  my  attack  at  LaGrange,  and 
am  feeling  fine  again.  I  am  always  well  when  on  the  march. 
An  effort  was  made  to  get  me  to  remain  at  LaGrange  on  account 
of  my  health,  but  I  could  not  stand  it  to  stay  back  when  the  regi- 
ment was  advancing.  I  have  improved  every  day  since  I  left 
LaGrange.  Hope  we  will  see  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  by 
Christmas.  We  are  all  in  fine  spirits  and  much  elated  at  the  pros- 
pects of  getting  farther  down  into  the  heart  of  Dixie. 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers, 
Lumpkins  Mills,  Miss.,  December  5,  1862 

We  have  been  here  longer  than  I  supposed  we  would  be.  We 
may  move  any  day  and  we  may  not  move  for  a  week.  We  are 
ready  to  pull  out  any  hour.  December  thus  far  has  been  anything 
else  than  pleasant,  although  we  are  in  the  "Sunny  South."  I 
don't  remember  having  ever  seen  worse  weather  in  Indiana  than 
we  have  had  here  for  the  last  few  days.  With  the  exception  of 
one  day  it  has  been  almost  constantly  raining,  blowing,  and 
snowing.  It  has  cleared  off  this  evening  and  I  hope  we  will  get 
some  sunshine. 


200       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

I  have  entirely  recovered  from  the  attack  at  LaGrange.  I 
believe  I  wrote  you  about  the  kind  treatment  I  received  from 
Mrs.  and  Miss  Clay.  I  shall  never  forget  them.  When  I  left 
to  join  the  regiment  they  tried  hard  to  induce  me  to  remain 
longer.  I  confess  there  was  considerable  hesitancy,  but  my  sense 
of  duty  overcame  my  love  of  ease  and  I  left  their  pleasant  and 
hospitable  home.  Miss  Clay  gave  me  a  letter  to  some  of  their 
friends  in  Holly  Springs  but  we  did  not  stop  there  long  enough 
for  me  to  deliver  it.  I  would  send  it  to  you  but  I  may  present 
it  yet. 

You  speak  of  having  a  discussion  with  Mr.  Slaughter  about 
abolitionism  and  about  being  displeased  with  Mr.  Pike  for  preach- 
ing an  abolition  sermon.  I  fear  you  are  influenced  more  by  your 
prejudice  on  that  subject  than  you  are  by  your  good  sense. 

Abolitionism  that  is  now  synonymous  with  everything  that  is 
not  pro-slavery,  is  the  great  monster  that  frightens  conservatives 
out  of  their  property.  I  am  fast  coming  to  the  conclusion  that 
none  of  us  will  ever  be  permitted  to  enjoy  peace  as  long  as  slavery 
lasts.  As  long  as  slavery  lasts  the  people  will  disagree  and  quarrel, 
and  that  they  can't  do  without  fighting.  The  truth  is,  slavery 
is  wrong,  and  the  moral  and  Christian  sentiment  of  the  civilized 
world  condemns  it.  The  Northern  people  believe  it  is  wrong, 
and  so  will  continue  to  fight  and  denounce  it. 

We  can  already  clearly  see  one  thing  as  the  result  of  this  war 
and  that  is  the  doom  of  slavery.  I  advise  you  to  think  a  little  on 
the  subject,  and  the  better  to  enable  you  to  arrive  at  a  correct 
conclusion  I  recommend  you  to  read  Robert  Dale  Owen's  letter 
to  Secretary  Chase.  Ask  Mr.  Slaughter  for  a  paper  containing 
the  letter. 

Mr.  Slaughter  procured  me  a  paper  containing  Mr. 
Owen's  letter,  which  was  dated  November  10,  and  published 
in  the  New.  York  Evening  Post,  November  22,  1862.1     This 

1  To  the  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase,  New  York,  November  10,  1862 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Sir:  In  briefest  terms  I  state  the  propositions  which,  as  the  subject  of  our  recent  con- 
versation, I  promised  to  reduce  to  writing. 

What  are  the  reasonable  hopes  of  peace? 

Not,  that  within  the  next  fifty  days  the  South,  availing  herself  of  the  term  of  grace  offered 
in  the  President's  proclamation,  may,  to  save  her  favorite  institution,  return  to  her  allegiance. 
Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.     There  are  no  conditions,  no  guarantees— no,  not  if  we  proffer 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  201 

letter  and  two  that  preceded  it  —  the  first  addressed  to 
Secretary  Stanton,  July  23,  1862,  published  first  in  the  New 
York  Evening  Post,  August  8,  1862;  the  second,  addressed 
and  handed  to  Mr.  Lincoln  September  17,  and  printed  in 
the  New  York  Tribune,  October  26  —  were  printed  in  pam- 
phlet form  and  sent  broadcast  throughout  the  army.     The 


a  blank  sheet  on  which  to  set  them  down,  with  unrestricted  pen,  in  her  own  hand — under  which 
she  will  consent  to  reunion,  except  in  one  contingency — conquest,  more  or  less  complete  by  force 
of  arms. 

Are  we  likely  to  obtain  peace  by  conquest? 

In  search  of  an  answer,  let  us  look  closely  at  a  few  statistical  facts.  By  the  census  of 
i860,  the  number  of  white  males  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five,  is,  in  the  loyal 
States,  about  4,000,000;  and  in  the  disloyal  States  about  1,300,000;  a  little  upwards  of  three 
to  one.     The  disproportion  seems  overwhelmingly  great. 

But  this  calculation,  as  a  basis  of  military  strength,  is  wholly  fallacious,  for  it  includes 
persons  of  one  color  only. 

Out  of  the  above  4,000,000  the  North  has  to  provide  soldiers  and  (with  inconsiderable 
exceptions,  not  usually  extending  to  field  labor)  laborers  also. 

But  of  the  3,500,000  slaves  owned  in  the  Rebel  States,  about  2,000,000  may  be  estimated 
as  laborers.  Allow  300,000  of  these  as  employed  in  domestic  services  and  other  occupations 
followed  by  women  among  us,  and  we  have  1,700,000  plantation  hands,  male  and  female, 
each  one  of  which  counts  against  a  Northern  laborer  on  farm  or  in  workshop. 

Then,  of  that  portion  of  population  whence  soldiers  and  outdoor  laborers  and  mechanics 
must  chiefly  be  taken,  the  Northern  States  have  4,000,000  and  the  Southern  States  3,000,000. 

Supposing  the  negroes  all  loyal  to  their  masters,  it  follows  that  the  true  proportion  of 
strength  available  in  this  war — that  is,  of  soldiers  to  fight  and  laborers  to  support  the  nation 
while  fighting — may  fairly  enough  be  taken  at  three  in  the  South  to  four  in  the  North. 

Under  this  supposition  of  a  South  united,  without  regard  to  color,  in  an  effort  for  recog- 
nition, shall  we  obtain  peace  by  subduing  her?  If  history  teach  truth,  we  shall  not.  Never, 
since  the  world  began,  did  9,000,000  of  people  band  together,  resolutely  inspired  by  the  one 
idea  of  achieving  their  independence,  yet  fail  to  obtain  it.  It  is  not  a  century  since  one-third 
of  the  number  successfully  defied  Great  Britain. 

But  let  us  suppose  the  negroes  of  the  South  loyal  to  the  Union  instead  of  to  their  masters ; 
How  stands  the  matter  then? 

In  that  case,  it  is  not  to  a  united  people,  but  to  a  confederacy  divided  against  itself,  that 
we  are  opposed;  the  masters  on  one  side;  the  laborers,  exceeding  them  in  number,  on  the  other. 

Suppose  the  services  of  these  laborers  transferred  to  us,  what  will  then  be  the  proportion, 
on  either  side,  of  forces  available,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  military  purposes? 

As  about  five  and  three-fourths  to  one  and  a  third;  in  other  words,  nearly  as  nine  to  two. 

Such  a  wholesale  transfer  is,  of  course,  impossible  in  practice.  But  in  so  far  as  the  trans- 
fer is  possible,  and  shall  occur,  we  approach  the  above  results. 

How  much  wisdom,  under  these  circumstances,  is  there  in  the  advice  that  we  should  put 
down  the  rebellion  first  and  settle  the  negro  question  afterwards?  What  shall  we  say  of  their 
statesmanship,  who,  in  a  war  like  this,  would  leave  out  of  view  the  practical  effects  of  emanci- 
pation? 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  African  loyalty  in  this  war  will  little 
avail  us,  if  we  have  not  good  sense  and  good  feeling  enough  properly  to  govern  the  negroes 
who  may  enter  our  lines. 

To  render  their  aid  available,  in  the  first  place,  we  must  treat  them  humanely,  a  duty  we 
have  yet  to  learn;  and  secondly,  both  for  their  sakes  and  for  our  own,  we  must  not  support 
them  in  idleness.  Doubtless,  they  are  most  efficient  as  laborers,  as  domestics  in  camp,  as 
teamsters,  or  employed  on  intrenchments  and  fortifications,  or  in  ambulance  corps,  or  as  sappers 
and  miners;  or,  as  fast  as  Southern  plantations  shall  fall  into  our  possession,  as  field  hands. 


202        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

second  preceded  Mr.  Lincoln's  preliminary  emancipation 
by  five  days.  These  three  letters,  most  admirable  in  style 
and  among  the  most  remarkable  productions  of  the  war, 
may  have  been  a  factor  in  producing  conviction  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  mind;  for  it  was  a  long  way  from  declaring  before 
the  world,  as  he  did  in  his  inaugural  address,  that  he  was 


But  if  all  these  posts  become  overfilled,  better  do  away  with  the  necessity  for  further 
draft  in  the  North  by  putting  muskets  in  the  hands  of  able-bodied  men,  colored  differently  from 
ourselves,  than  to  delude  their  ignorance  into  the  opinion  that  among  the  privileges  of  freedom 
is  food  without  work. 

Have  we  philanthropy  and  discretion  enough  wisely  to  administer  such  a  change  of  system? 
Possibly  not.  Administrative  capacity  in  public  affairs  is  not  our  strong  point.  We  would 
do  well  to  bear  in  mind,  however,  that  without  such  capacity  not  this  war  only  but  our  entire 
governmental  experiment,  will  prove  a  failure  at  last. 

Do  other  objections  hold  against  the  plan?  Does  humanity  forbid  us  to  accept  the  aid 
of  an  enslaved  race?  In  so  far  as  humanity  can  ever  enjoin  war  at  all,  she  enjoins  the  employ- 
ment, by  us,  of  the  African  in  this  struggle;  first,  because  his  employment  may  shorten,  by 
years,  the  fratricidal  struggle;  and  then  because,  if  he  is  not  permitted  to  assist  in  civilized 
warfare  under  us,  and  if,  without  his  aid,  we  fail  to  effect  his  liberation  and  thus  disappoint 
his  hopes,  he  may  be  overtaken  by  the  temptation  to  seek  freedom  and  revenge  in  his  own  wild 
way. 

In  accepting  the  liberated  slave  as  a  soldier,  we  may  prevent  his  rising  as  an  assassin. 
By  the  creation  of  negro  brigades  we  may  avert  the  indiscriminate  massacres  of  servile  insur- 
rection. 

Or  is  there  an  insuperable  difficulty  of  caste  in  the  way?  In  a  contest  likely  to  eventuate 
in  securing  to  another  race  than  ours  the  greatest  of  temporal  blessings,  are  we  determined 
to  shut  out  that  race  from  all  share  in  its  own  liberation?  Are  we  so  enamored  of  the  Moloch, 
War,  that  we  will  suffer  none  but  our  sons  to  pass  through  the  fire?  Terrible  penalty  to  pay, 
with  life  and  death  at  stake,  for  a  national  prejudice  against  the  Southern  pariah! 

As  to  the  duty  of  our  rulers  in  the  premises,  I  cannot  see  according  to  what  principle  of 
ethics  a  government  charged  with  the  lives  of  millions,  the  putting  down  of  a  gigantic  rebel- 
lion, and  the  restoring  of  tranquillity  to  the  land,  has  the  right,  in  the  hour  of  its  utmost  need, 
to  scorn  a  vast  element  of  strength  placed  within  its  reach  and  at  its  disposal;  nor  why,  if  it 
refuses  to  avail  itself  of  such  an  element,  it  should  not  be  held  responsible  for  the  lives  it  sacri- 
fices and  the  hopes  it  blights. 

But  we  need  emancipation  far  less  for  the  material  aid  it  affords — great,  even  indispens- 
able, though  it  be — than  because  of  other  paramount  considerations. 

We  have  tried  the  experiment  of  a  Federal  Union,  with  a  free-labor  system  in  one  portion 
of  it  and  a  slave  system  in  another,  for  eighty  years;  and  no  one  familiar  with  our  affairs  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  past  is  ignorant  that  the  result  has  been  an  increase — embittered  year 
by  year  in  ever-accelerated  ratio — of  dissensions,  of  sectional  jealousies,  of  national  heart- 
burnings. When  eighteen  months  since,  these  culminated  in  war,  it  was  but  the  issue  which 
our  ablest  statesmen,  looking  sorrowfully  into  the  future,  had  long  since  foretold.  But  if  while 
yet  at  peace,  and  with  all  the  influence  of  revolutionary  reminiscences  pleading  the  cause  of 
Union,  this  diversity  of  labor  systems  producing  variance  of  character  and  alienation  of  feeling, 
proves  stronger  to  divide  than  all  past  memories  and  present  interests  to  unite,  what  chance 
is  there  that  its  baneful  power  for  evil  should  cease  now,  when  the  thoughts  of  fancied  injuries 
in  other  years  are  added  to  the  recollections  of  the  terrible  realities  enacted  on  a  hundred 
bloody  battlefields  from  which  the  smoke  has  scarcely  passed  away? 

None — the  remotest  I 

A  suspension  of  hostilities  we  can  purchase;  a  few  years'  respite,  probably,  in  which  to 
return  to  our  money-getting  before  the  storm  bursts  forth  anew  with  gathered  force;  but  if 
we  look  beyond  selfishness  and  the  present ;  if  our  children  are  in  our  thought ;  if  we  are  suffering 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  203 

willing  that  slavery  should  be  made  express  and  irrevocable 
in  the  Constitution,  to  issuing  a  conditional  emancipation 
proclamation.  Long  before  the  people  and  the  politicians 
in  the  rear,  the  Democrats  in  the  ranks  almost  without 
exception  —  my  brother,  Major  Thomas  McGrain,  was  one 
of  the  exceptions  —  adopted  emancipation  as  a  war  measure. 


and  expending  now  that  they  in  a  land  of  prosperity  may  live  and  die  in  peace,  then  must  we 
act  so  that  the  result  shall  endure.  We  must  not  be  content  to  put  off  the  evil  day.  The 
root  of  the  evil — the  pregnant  cause  of  the  war — that  must  be  eradicated. 

Report  has  it  that  a  western  politician  recently  proposed,  as  the  best  solution  of  our 
difficulties,  the  recognition  of  slavery  in  all  the  States.  Such  an  idea  has  a  basis  of  truth; 
namely,  that  a  state  of  war  is  among  us,  the  necessary  result  of  conflicting  labor  systems. 
Such  an  idea  might  even  be  carried  out  and  lead  to  peace,  but  for  that  progressive  spirit  of 
Christian  civilization  which  we  dare  not  openly  outrage,  howsoever  imperfectly  we  obey  its 
humane  behests. 

There  are  a  thousand  reasons — geographical,  commercial,  political,  international — why 
we  should  not  consent  to  a  separation  into  two  confederacies;  it  is  a  contingency  not  to  be 
thought  of  or  entertained ;  but  if  we  look  merely  to  the  conditions  of  lasting  peace,  the  chance 
of  maintaining  it  would  be  far  better  if  the  independence  of  the  South  were  to  be  recognized 
with  her  negroes  emancipated,  than  if  she  were  to  return  to  her  allegiance  retaining  her  slave 
system. 

For  in  the  former  case,  the  cause  of  dissension  being  uprooted,  the  tendency  would  be  to 
reunite,  and  a  few  years  might  see  us  a  single  nation  again;  while,  in  the  latter,  a  constantly 
active  source  of  irritation  still  existing,  three  years  of  breathing  time  would  not  elapse  without 
bringing  endless  quarrels  and  a  second  rebellion. 

Conceive  reunion  with  slavery  still  in  existence.  Imagine  Southern  sympathizers  in  power 
among  us  offering  compromises.  Suppose  the  South,  exhausted  with  military  reverses  and 
desiring  a  few  years'  armistice  to  recruit,  decides  to  accept  it  under  the  guise  of  peace  and 
reconstruction?  What  next?  Thousands  of  slaves,  their  excited  hopes  of  emancipation 
crushed,  fleeing  across  the  border.  A  fugitive  slave  law  revived  by  peace,  demanding  their 
rendition.  Popular  opinion  in  the  North  opposed  to  the  law,  and  refusing  the  demand.  Re- 
newed war  the  certain  consequences. 

Or  take  even  the  alternative  of  recognition — recognition  of  an  independent  Confederacy, 
still  slave-holding.  Are  we,  then,  becoming  the  sole  exception  among  the  nations  of  the  earth 
to  make  ourselves  aiders  and  abetters  of  the  slave  system  of  a  foreign  nation,  by  agreeing  to 
return  to  her  negro  refugees  seeking  liberty  and  an  asylum  among  us?  National  self-respect 
imperatively  forbids  us.  Public  sentiment  would  compel  the  rejection,  as  a  base  humiliation, 
of  any  proposed  treaty  stipulation  providing  for  rendition  of  runaway  slaves.  Yet  the  South 
would  regard  such  rejection  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  standing  menace — a  threat  to  deprive 
her  of  what  she  regards  as  her  most  valuable  property.  Coterminous  as  for  hundreds  — 
possibly  thousands — of  miles  our  boundaries  would  be,  must  not  the  South,  in  common  pru- 
dence, maintain  all  along  that  endless  border  line  an  armed  slave  police?  Are  we  to  consent 
to  this?  And  if  we  do,  shall  we  escape  border  raids  after  fleeing  fugitives?  No  sane  man  will 
expect  it.  Are  we  to  suffer  these?  We  are  disgraced.  Are  we  to  resent  them?  It  is  a  renewal 
of  hostilities. 

State  elections  may  go  as  they  will.  Their  results  can  never  change  the  fact  that  any 
party  obtaining  the  control  of  the  government  and  adopting  the  policy  that  the  settlement  of 
the  emancipation  question  is  to  be  postponed  till  the  war  shall  be  closed — not  even  by  accepting 
a  shameful  disruption  of  our  country. 

But  if  emancipation  is  to  avail  us  as  a  peace  measure,  we  must  adopt  it  boldly,  resolutely, 
effectually.  It  must  be  general,  not  partial;  extending  not  to  the  slaves  of  Rebels  only,  but  to 
every  slave  on  this  continent.  Even  if  it  were  practicable — which  it  is  not,  with  slavery  non- 
existent in  the  Northern  States  and  abolished  in  those  which  persist  in  rebellion — to  maintain 


204       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Two  captains  of  the  Fifty-third  Indiana  stood  out  with  him. 
It  took  more  courage  to  do  this,  encouraged  though  they 
were  from  the  rear,  than  to  go  up  against  a  Rebel  battery. 
He  argued  against  it,  quoted  Mr.  Lincoln's  inaugural  ad- 
dress, the  pledges  made  to  the  Kentuckians  in  1861,  that 
it  would  not  be  made  an  Abolition  war,  and  tendered  his 


it  in  the  narrow  border  strip,  it  is  precisely  there,  where  negro  fugitives  can  the  most  readily 
escape,  that  its  maintenance  would  the  most  certainly  lead  to  war. 
Can  this  great  peace  measure  be  constitutionally  enacted? 

A  proclamation  or  (the  more  appropriate  form)  an  act  of  General  Emancipation,  should, 
in  its  preamble,  set  forth  in  substance  that  the  claims  to  service  or  labor  of  which  it  deprives 
certain  persons  having  been  proved  by  recent  events  to  be  of  a  character  endangering  the 
supremacy  of  the  law,  jeopardizing  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  and  incompatible  with  the 
permanent  peace  of  the  country,  are  taken  by  the  government,  with  just  compensation  made, 
under  circumstances  far  less  urgent  than  these,  the  law  or  custom  of  civilized  nations,  based 
on  considerations  of  public  utility,  authorizes  such  taking  of  private  property  for  public  use. 
We  ourselves  are  familiar  with  its  operation.  When  a  conflagration  in  a  city  threatens  to 
spread  far,  houses  in  the  line  of  its  progress  may  legally  be  seized  and  destroyed  by  the  author- 
ities in  order  to  arrest  it;  and  the  owners  are  not  held  to  have  been  wronged  if  they  are  paid 
for  such  losses  under  an  equitable  appraisement.  But  it  is  not  the  existence  of  part  of  a  city 
that  is  now  endangered;  it  is  the  integrity  of  one  among  the  first  powers  of  the  world  that 
is  menaced  with  destruction. 

The  truth  of  the  preamble  suggested  has  become,  in  my  judgment,  incontrovertible.  It 
will  receive  the  assent  of  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people,  of  the  loyal  States.  The 
public  sentiment  of  Europe  will  admit  its  truth. 

Let  us  confess  that  such  preamble,  as  preface  to  act  or  proclamation,  could  not  have  com- 
manded the  assent  of  more  than  a  small  fraction  of  our  people  only  two  short  years  ago — 
two  years,  as  we  reckon  time;  a  generation,  if  we  calculate  by  the  stirring  events  and  far-reaching 
upheavals  that  have  been  crowded  into  the  eventful  months.  In  such  days  as  those  abuses 
ripen  rapidly,  their  consequences  mature,  their  ultimate  tendencies  become  apparent;  we  are 
reminded  of  their  transitory  character.  We  are  reminded  that  although  for  the  time,  and 
in  a  certain  stage  of  human  progress,  some  abuses  may  have  their  temporary  use,  and  for  this, 
under  God's  economy,  may  have  been  suffered  to  continue;  yet  all  abuses  have  but  a  limited 
life.     The  right  only  is  eternal. 

The  rebellion — teacher  and  creator  as  well  as  scourge  and  destroyer — by  sternly  laying 
bare  the  imminent  dangers  of  slavery,  has  created  the  constitutionality  of  emancipation.  It 
has  done  more.  It  has  made  emancipation  a  bounden  political  duty  as  well  as  a  strictly  con- 
stitutional right. 

Can  we,  in  declaring  emancipati6n,  legally  avoid  the  payment,  say  of  two  hundred  mil- 
lions, in  the  shape  of  compensation  to  loyal  slaveholders? 

Not  if  a  slaveholder's  right  to  service  and  -labor  from  his  slaves,  when  not  forfeited  by 
treason,  is  legal.  On  humanitarian  grounds  the  legality  of  that  right  has  been  denied.  But 
a  construction  of  the  Constitution  adverse  to  such  denial,  and  acquiesced  in  by  the  nation 
throughout  more  than  two  generations,  is  held  by  most  men  to  be  reason  sufficient  why  the 
right  in  question  should  be  regarded  as  private  property.  If  it  be  private  property,  then 
except  by  violating  the  fifth  article  of  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  it  cannot  be  taken 
for  public  use  without  just  compensation.  To  violate  any  article  of  the  Constitution  is  a  revolu- 
tionary act;  but  such  acts  cost  a  nation  more  than  a  few  hundred  million  dollars. 

The  risk  that  a  future  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  might  declare  emancipation  without 
compensation  to  be  unconstitutional,  is  of  itself  sufficient  justification  of  the  President's 
policy,  corresponding  to  the  above  suggestions  in  this  matter. 

Such  compensation  will  be  unpopular  with  many.  Wise  and  just  acts,  when  they  involve 
sacrifices,  frequently  are.     A  wrong,  long  tolerated,  commonly  entails  a  penalty,  which  is 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  205 

resignation  because  he  had  enlisted  to  save  the  Union,  not 
to  free  the  negroes.  But  the  logic  of  events  was  more 
potent  than  any  former  utterances  of  the  President.  The 
war,  as  my  husband  afterwards  said,  was  legislating.1  Pos- 
sessing moral  courage  of  the  highest  type  General  Grant  was 


seldom  cheerfully  paid.  Yet,  even  on  other  grounds,  we  ought  not  in  this  case  to  begrudge  the 
money.  Who  deserve  better  of  their  country  than  those  brave  men  who,  in  the  border  and 
other  slave  States,  have  clung  to  their  loyalty  through  all  the  dark  hours  of  peril  even  to  life? 
Precautions  naturally  suggest  themselves  against  false  pretenses  of  loyalty.  It  seems 
expedient  that  he  who  shall  have  proved  that  he  is  the  legal  owner  of  certain  slaves,  and  also 
that  he  has  ever  been  loyal  to  the  Union,  should  receive  a  certificate  of  indebtedness  by  the 
government,  not  transferable,  to  be  paid  at  some  fixed  time  subsequent  to  the  termination  of 
the  war;  payment  being  made  contingent  on  the  fact  that  the  claimant  shall  not,  meanwhile, 
have  lapsed  from  his  loyalty. 

Every  such  claimant,  once  recognized,  would  feel  himself  to  be,  by  his  own  act,  the  citizen 
of  a  Free  State — one  of  us,  detached  forever  from  the  Southern  league.  A  government  stock- 
holder, he  would  become  pecuniarily  interested  in  the  support  of  the  government  and  the 
restoration  of  peace. 

The  legislatures  of  the  border  States  may  not  initiate  such  a  policy,  but  the  loyal  men 
of  these  States  will  accept  it.  Such  a  measure  does  not  involve  expense  in  conveying  the 
liberated  negro  to  other  countries.  It  has  hitherto,  indeed,  been  the  usual  policy  in  Slave 
States  to  discourage  as  dangerous  the  residence  there  of  free  blacks;  and  hence  an  idea  that 
colonization  should  be  the  concomitant  of  emancipation.  Of  general  emancipation  there  is 
no  need  whatever  that  it  should  be.  Those  who  take  up  such  an  idea  forget  that  the  jealousy 
with  which  slaveholders  regard  the  presence  of  free  negroes  spring  out  of  the  dread  that  these 
may  infect  with  a  desire  for  freedom  the  slaves  around  them,  thus  rendering  them  insubordinate. 
But  when  all  are  free  there  will  be  no  slaves  to  incite,  not  any  chains  to  be  broken  by  resort 
to  insurrection. 

It  is  no  business  of  ours  either  to  decide  for  the  liberated  negro  where  he  shall  dwell,  nor 
to  furnish  his  traveling  expenses.  Freemen,  black  or  white,  should  select  their  own  dwelling 
place  and  pay  their  own  way. 

As  to  the  fears  of  competition  in  labor  sought  to  be  excited  in  the  minds  of  the  northern 
workingman,  they  have  foundation  only  in  case  emancipation  be  refused;  for  such  refusal 
would  flood  the  North  with  fugitives.  If,  on  the  contrary,  emancipation  be  carried  out,  the 
strong  local  attachments  of  the  negro  will  induce  him,  with  rarest  exceptions,  to  remain  as  a 
hired  laborer  where  he  worked  as  a  slave.  Thus  humane  masters  will  not  lack  sufficient  work- 
ing hands,  of  which  colonization  would  deprive  them.  And  if,  notwithstanding  the  probable 
rise  of  Southern  staples,  profits,  at  first,  should  be  less,  the  security  of  the  planter  will  be 
greater.  He  will  no  longer  lie  down  at  night  uncertain  whether  the  morning's  news  may  not 
be  that  his  slaves  have  risen  against  him. 

This  is  the  paper  view  of  the  question.  But  all  edicts,  all  proclamations,  how  wise  and 
righteous  soever,  are  but  idle  announcements  now,  if  we  lack  courage  and  conduct  to  enforce 
them. 

Courage  we  have.  Raw  levies  have  behaved  like  veterans.  The  skeletons  of  regiments, 
reduced  to  one-tenth  their  original  number,  attest  the  desperate  valor  with  which  they  con- 
fronted death.  Not  with  the  rank  and  file  is  the  blame!  The  leading!  There  has  been  the 
secret  of  failure. 

With  all  the  advantages  of  a  just  cause  over  our  enemies,  we  have  suffered  them  to  outdo 
us  in  earnestness.  We  lack  the  enthusiasm  which  made  irresistible  the  charge  of  Cromwell's 
Ironsides.  We  need  the  invincible  impulse  of  a  sentiment.  We  want,  above  all,  leaders  who 
know  and  feel  what  they  are  fighting  for.  This  is  a  war  in  which  mercenaries  avail  not.  There 
must  be  a  higher  motive  than  the  pay  of  a  Swiss — a  holier  duty  urging  on  than  the  professional 

iSee  page  471. 

14 


206       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

rated  a  fatalist.  "Unconditional  and  immediate  surrender1 
anticipated  the  men  in  the  cloister  and  was  abolitionism2 
pure  and  simple.  General  Grant  says  he  was  pledged  to 
vote  for  Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  i860.3  I  read  Mr.  Owen's 
letter  with  great  interest.     Still  it  did  not  entirely  remove 


pride  or  the  blind  obedience  of  a  soldier.  By  parliamentary  usage  a  proposed  measure  is 
intrusted,  for  fostering  care  to  its,  friends.  So  should  this  war  be.  Its  conduct  should  be 
confined  to  men  whose  hearts  and  souls  are  in  it. 

Again.  It  has  long  been  one  of  our  national  sins  that  we  pass  by,  with  scarcely  a  rebuke, 
the  gravest  public  offenses.  We  utterly  fail  in  holding  to  a  strict  accountability  our  public 
men.  The  result  of  such  failure,  in  peace  had  almost  escaped  our  notice.  In  war  we  have 
now  beheld  its  effects,  flagrant  and  terrible.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  among  so  many 
thousands  of  officers  suddenly  appointed  there  should  not  be  some  hundreds  of  incompetents. 
Such  things  must  be.  No  one  is  to  blame,  if,  in  field  and  garden,  weeds  spring  up.  The  blame 
rests  with  him  who  leaves  them  there  to  choke  the  crop  and  cumber  the  ground. 

Accountability  —  that  should  be  the  watchword  —  accountability,  stern,  unrelenting! 
Office  has  its  emoluments;  let  it  have  its  responsibilities  also.  Let  us  demand,  as  Napoleon 
demanded,  success  from  our  leaders.  The  rule  may  work  harshly.  War  needs  harsh  rules. 
Actions  are  not  to  be  measured  in  war  by  the  standard  of  peace.  The  sentinel,  worn  by 
extreme. fatigue,  who  sleeps  at  his  post,  incurs  the  penalty  of  death.  There  is  mercy  in  courts 
martial  —  drum-head  courts  martial.  A  dozen  officers  shot,  whenever  the  gravity  of.  the 
offense  demands  it,  may  be  the  saving  of  life  to  tens  of  thousands  of  brave  men. 

Eighteen  months  have  passed.  Eight  hundred  millions  have  been  spent.  We  have  a 
million  of  armed  men  in  the  field.  More  than  a  hundred  thousand  rest  in  soldiers'  graves. 
And  for  all  this,  what  result?  Is  it  strange  if  sometimes  the  heart  sinks  and  resolution  fails 
at  the  thought  that,  from  sheer  administrative  infirmity,  the  vast  sacrifice  may  have  been  all 
in  vain? 

But  let  the  past  go.  Its  fatal  faults  (difficult  perhaps  to  avoid,  under  an  effort  so  sudden 
and  so  vast)  can  never  be  recalled.  Doubtless  they  had  their  use.  It  needed  the  grievous 
incapacity  we  have  witnessed,  the  stinging  reverses  we  have  suffered,  the  invasion  even  of 
Free  States  we  have  lived  to  see  commenced. 

It  needed  the  hecatombs  of  dead  piled  up  unavailingly  on  battlefield  after  battlefield; 
the  desolate  hearth,  the  broken-hearted  survivors;  it  needed  all  this  to  pave  the  way  for  that 
emancipation  which  is  the  only  harbinger  of  peace. 

The  future!  That  is  still  ours  to  improve.  Nor,  if  some  clouds  yet  rest  upon  it,  is  it 
without  bright  promise,  signs  of  recent  activity,  energy,  and  a  resolution  to  hold  accountable 
for  the  issues,  the  leaders  of  our  armies,  are  daily  apparent.  Better  than  all,  the  initiative  of 
a  true  line  of  policy  has  been  taken.  The  23d  of  September  has  had  its  effect.  The  path  of 
safety  is  before  us;  steep  and  rugged,  indeed,  but  no  longer  doubtful  nor  obscure.  A  lamp 
has  been  lit  to  guide  our  steps — a  lamp  that  may  burn  more  brightly  before  a  new  year  dawns 
upon  us.  The  noble  prayer  of  Ajax  has  been  vouchsafed  in  our  case.  At  last  we  have  light 
to  fight  by. 

We  shall  reach  a  quiet  haven  if  we  but  follow  faithfully  and  perseveringly  that  light. 

There  is,  at  this  moment,  in  the  hearts  of  all  good  men  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land,  no  deeper  feeling,  no  more  earnest  longing,  than  for  peace;  peace,  not  for  the  day, 
not  to  last  a  few  years,  but  peace  as  a  foundation  of  rock,  for  ourselves  and  for  our  children 
after  us.  May  the  hearts  of  our  rulers  be  open  to  the  conviction  that  they  can  purchase  only  a 
shambling  counterfeit  except  at  one  cost.  God  give  them  to  see,  ere  it  be  too  late,  that 
The  Price  of  Enduring  Peace  is  General  Emancipation. 

I  am,  Sir,  Your  obedient  servant, 

Robert  Dale  Owen. 

i  General  Grant  to  General  Buckner,  Feb.  16,  1862;  see  pages  463-64. 

2  See  pages  69,  92,  94  and  142.         3  Grant's  "Memoirs,"  page  172.     See  pages  1 17-18. 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  207 

my  prejudice.  I  went  back  at  my  husband  about  that  Fourth 
of  July  meeting  at  LaGrange,  Tennessee,  in  which  he  said 
he  was  not  an  Abolitionist,  and  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  first 
inaugural  address,  but  in  the  end  I  came  to  it.  No  less 
remarkable  than  the  letters  was  their  author,  Robert  Dale 
Owen,  and  if  Mr.  Lincoln  selected  him  as  the  means  of 
first  putting  his  war  views  before  the  public,  he  could  not 
have  planned  better.  Meantime,  the  bombardment  Wen- 
dell Phillips  and  the  Abolitionists  renewed,  produced  con- 
viction in  the  executive  mind  that  was  working  that  way. 
I  have  made  mention  of  Robert  Dale  Owen  as  a  Dem- 
ocratic member  of  Congress.  He  had  represented  our 
government  at  the  Neapolitan  court  up  to  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war.  As  a  member  of  the  Indiana  Constitu- 
tional Convention  in  1850,  he  had  fought  for  the  enfran- 
chisement of  woman  from  the  barbarism  of  the  English 
common  law  which  had  been  previously  adopted  as  part 
of  the  organic  law  of  Indiana.  Gifted  as  he  was  and 
varied  in  experience,  his  words  commanded  attention  from 
the  time  they  were  uttered. 

General  Grant  says  in  his  "Memoirs"  (page  428),  that 
the  main  body  of  his  troops  reached  Oxford,  and  that  17 
miles  south  of  Oxford  was  as  far  as  any  of  the  troops  under 
the  command  of  General  McPherson,  advanced.  Doubtless 
General  Grant  knew  what  he  was  doing,  although,  as 
appears  from  the  letters,  Colonel  Gresham  at  times  was 
under  a  different  impression.  These  letters  show,  what- 
ever may  have  been  his  purpose,  why  General  Grant  took 
the  "back  track."  Meanwhile  General  Sherman  failed  to 
take  Vicksburg.  A  Confederate  Captain  Bowie,  whom  I 
afterwards  met  and  who  was  in  Pemberton's  army  which 
retreated  before  Grant's  advance,  says  Grant  should  have 
done  as  he  did  later  —  cut  loose  from  his  supplies,  live  off 
the  country,  and  besiege  Vicksburg  from  the  rear,  with  Sher- 
man in  the  front.  The  Fifty- third  Indiana  reached  almost 
the  farthest  point  south  that  any  of  Grant's  troops  went. 

Colonel  Gresham  wrote  me  from  the  field  as  follows: 


208       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Camp  in  Field,  South  of  Oxford,  Miss., 

December  14,  1862 

We  arrived  here  last  night  after  a  hard  day's  march.  The 
men  fell  out  and  straggled  along  the  road  by  hundreds,  but  not 
so  with  the  Fifty-third.  Our  men. carried  knapsacks,  guns,  cart- 
ridges, haversacks,  one  day's  rations,  and  a  canteen  of  water, 
and  marched  twenty  miles.  We  are  546  strong  and  only  three 
men  taking  medicine,  and  they  are  not  so  sick  but  that  they  could 
march.  We  still  have  some  men  back  at  LaGrange.  When  we 
went  into  camp  our  men  were  all  up  but  three.  I  wrote  from 
Waterford  Thursday  morning  just  as  we  were  starting  on  the 
march.  We  are  now  thirty-five  miles  south  of  Waterford.  Ox- 
ford is  a  beautiful  country  town,  a  little  larger  than  Corydon. 
We  will  likely  be  here  two  or  three  days  as  we  draw  our  supplies 
thirty  miles  from  the  railroad.  The  cars  will  run  up  to  Oxford 
in  a  few  days  and  then  we  will  move  on.  The  weather  is  warm 
and  pleasant.     Our  men  are  all  well.     My  health  is  good. 

I  am  going  to  ride  over  to  our  right  to  see  some  Hoosier  regi- 
ments that  came  across  the  country  from  Memphis  with  General 
Sherman.  The  Hoosiers  are  great  friends  down  in  Dixie.  They 
will  divide  anything  in  the  world  with  each  other,  even  to  their 
clothes. 

I  am  not  able  to  say  when  the  Rebels  will  make  a  stand  in 
Mississippi,  if  indeed  they  do  at  all.  Some  think  they  will  fight 
at  Grenada,  others  think  they  will  make  no  stand  short  of  Jackson, 
and  still  others  think  they  will  not  make  a  stand  anywhere  in  the 
State.     You  will  know  in  twenty  or  thirty  days. 

In  Camp,  Six  Miles  from  Oxford,  Miss., 

December  23,  1862 

You  have  doubtless  heard  ere  this  of  the  Rebels  getting  in 
our  rear,  capturing  small  detachments, —  some  of  them  not  so 
very  small  —  tearing  up  the  railroad,  and  destroying  bridges. 
That  is  all  we  know,  and  that  is  enough,  but  we  would  like  to  know 
something  more  of  the  particulars.  I  don't  know  whether  our 
movement  down  here  was  a  ruse  or  whether  General  Grant  has 
been  outwitted,  but  I  am  inclined  to  believe  the  latter. 

It  is  understood  here  that  Bragg  has  succeeded  in  eluding 
the  vigilance  of  Rosecrans  and  that  a  large  portion  of  his  force 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  209 

are  now  north  of  us;  that  a  portion  of  Bragg's  force  took  Holly- 
Springs  and  other  places  along  the  railroad.  I  don't  know  whether 
Rosecrans  is  moving  down  after  Bragg  or  not,  but  I  suppose  he  is 
by  this  time.  It  looks  to  me  now  as  though  the  Rebels  made  a 
feint  on  Jackson,  Tennessee,  and  induced  General  Grant  to  divide 
his  army  down  here,  sending  a  portion  of  it  to  reinforce  Jackson, 
and  when  they  had  succeeded  in  that  they  came  in  on  Holly 
Springs  and  destroyed  the  road,  thereby  dividing  our  army,  and 
cutting  off  from  our  supplies  those  of  us  who  are  left  down  here. 
We  have  rations  with  us  to  do  ten  days,  and  there  is  subsistence 
in  the  country,  so  we  are  in  no  danger  of  starving.  What  we  will 
do  now  I  can't  say.     I  don't  even  know  where  we  are  .going. 

Yesterday  morning  the  whole  army  marched  from  our  camp 
ten  miles  south  of  Oxford.  We  had  orders  last  night  to  move 
on  this  morning  at  6  o'clock,  but  before  we  got  on  the  march, 
the  orders  were  countermanded. 

If  Rosecrans  is  not  following  Bragg,  we  will  have  some  hot 
work,  for  the  army  that  we  drove  before  us  as  we  advanced  south 
joined  to  Bragg's,  or  rather  attacking  us  simultaneously  with 
Bragg,  will  be  able  to  amuse  us,  I  fear,  to  our  satisfaction.  But 
we  have  a  good  body  of  men  and  they  will  not  be  whipped  easily. 

You  will  be  apt  to  know  the  result  of  this  sudden  change  of 
affairs  before  you  receive  this  letter. 

Don't  be  uneasy  about  me,  for  I  am  in  fine  health  and  spirits, 
not  the  least  depressed.  I  shall  await  future  developments  with 
patience.  Would  not  be  surprised  if  we  turn  up  at  Corinth  in 
six  or  seven  days. 

We  only  know  that  Burnside  is  engaged  with  the  Rebels. 
Suppose  you  have  known  the  fate  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
for  several  days.  I  have  more  anxiety  about  matters  in  Vir- 
ginia than  I  have  about  our  own  position. 

I  give  here  an  interesting  letter  from  my  husband, 
written  at  the  beginning  of  1863 : 

Camp  at  Lumpkins  Mills,  Miss., 

January  3,  1863 
The  blockade  is  at  last  raised.     Since  the  Rebels  destroyed 
our  communications  to  the  north  I  have  been  ignorant  of  what 


210       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

transpired  outside  of  our  lines.  I  was  at  Holly  Springs  yesterday 
and  learned  that  General  Burnside  had  fallen  back  and  taken  a 
position  on  the  north  side  of  the  Rappahannock  again,  which  I 
interpret  thus :  that  he  attacked  Lee  near  Fredericksburg  and  got 
decidedly  whipped.  I  have  not  seen  a  paper  later  than  the  15th 
of  December,  but  our  communication  (by  rail)  with  Memphis  is 
now  open  and  I  suppose  we  will  soon  know  something  of  what 
has  been  transpiring  during  the  time  we  have  had  no  communica- 
tion with  the  North.  For  a  while  we  expected  to  be  attacked 
every  hour,  and  to  tell  the  truth  we  did  not  care  much  whether 
the  Rebels  attacked  us  or  not.  We  have  passed  the  time  much 
better  than  you  would  suppose.  For  my  own  part,  aside  from 
my  anxiety  about  you  and  the  children,  I  have  put  in  the 
time  very  well.  The  weather  has  been  fine,  such  as  we  have  in 
Indiana  in  October.  We  have  been  on  half  rations  for  ten 
days;  that  is,  we  have  half  rations  of  meat  and  hard  bread. 
No  coffee,  sugar,  salt,  or  anything  else.  We  (ourselves)  have 
had  flour  all  the  time,  I  having  had  the  precaution  to  lay  in 
a  supply  in  time. 

When  I  next  visited  my  husband  he  was  stationed  at 
Collierville,  about  thirty-five  miles  east  of  Memphis.  As 
before,  I  went  down  the  river  by  boat.  My  sister-in-law, 
the  wife  of  my  brother  Tom,  then  major  of  the  Fifty- third, 
accompanied  me.  It  was  January,  1863.  My  husband 
met  me  at  Memphis  and  took  me  by  rail  to  Collierville, 
which  was  a  small  hamlet  with  camps  all  around  it.  It 
was  the  brigade  headquarters.  There  were  not  many 
generals  in  that  army,  certainly  no  political  generals.  In 
almost  all  instances  brigades  were  under  the  command  of 
colonels.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Jones  was  then  in  command 
of  the  Fifty-third. 

My  husband  had  been  ordered  to  this  point  to  relieve 
Colonel  John  M.  Loomis  of  Chicago,  in  command  of  the 
brigade.  The  headquarters  were  in  one  of  the  residences 
of  the  town. 

I  had  been  there  but  ten  days  when  my  husband  was 
taken  sick.     There  was  much  sickness  among  the  soldiers  — 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  211 

smallpox  and  typhoid  fever.  There  was  a  pesthouse  in 
the  town  for  those  afflicted  with  smallpox.  At  first  the 
doctors  could  not  tell  what  disease  my  husband  would 
develop.  It  proved  to  be  typhoid,  and  for  the  next  five 
weeks  I  was  nurse.  We  had  nothing  but  army  rations, 
no  fresh  meat  and  no  milk  or  cream. 

Dr.  Slaughter  was  the  surgeon  of  the  Fifty-third.  He 
was  from  Evansville,  Indiana,  and  was  a  most  competent 
man,  but  after  a  time  my  husband  grew  impatient  at  his 
lack  of  progress  toward  recovery  and  insisted  on  a  con- 
sultation. At  Dr.  Slaughter's  request,  a  dozen  army  sur- 
geons attended.  I  remember  one  old  doctor  telling  how 
much  greater  the  mortality  was  in  cases  of  typhoid  in  some 
seasons  than  others.  The  summer  before,  he  said,  "we 
gave  them  calomel  and  jalap  until  we  jalaped  them  to 
death." 

After  many  jokes  and  hearty  laughs,  each  doctor  in 
turn  told  my  husband  that  the  treatment  prescribed  by 
Dr.  Slaughter  should  not  be  changed,  and  departed.  Dr. 
Slaughter's  medicine  was  fifteen  drops  of  turpentine  on 
loaf  sugar,  given  every  three  hours  throughout  the  fever 
and  convalescence. 

The  army  rations  would  not  do  for  a  speedy  convales- 
cence. We  must  have  chickens  for  broth.  The  soldiers 
told  me  they  could  get  them  by  foraging..  I  did  not  know 
what  foraging  was.  One  day  a  bright  drummer  boy,  only 
fifteen  years  old,  came  to  me  with  a  fat  chicken  under  each 
arm.  I  asked  him  where  he  got  them,  and  he  answered, 
1  ■  For  'gin' . ' '  I  said,  ' '  What  do  you  mean  by  foraging  ? "  He 
said  parties  of  soldiers  went  out  and  scoured  the  country 
for  something  to  eat.  "I  went  along  and  jest  grabbed  'em 
off  the  roost."  Thus  he  defined  foraging.  These  chickens 
made  fine  broth,  and  more  like  them  brought  about  a  turn 
in  the  invalid's  condition.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  walk, 
he  was  out  of  the  house  into  the  camps. 

Then  came  talk  that  Grant  would  go  down  the  river 


212       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

to  take  Vicksburg.  Coincident  with  this,  troops  were 
moving  by  train  and  marching  through  Collierville  for 
Memphis. 

One  cold  afternoon,  with  the  rain  falling  hard  and  stead- 
ily, a  regiment  bound  for  Memphis  camped  right  around 
our  house.  All  the  outbuildings  were  occupied  except  one 
that  was  locked.  I  saw  a  party  of  soldiers  try  the  door, 
but  they  could  not  get  in.  Then  they  improvised  a  bat- 
tering ram  of  what  looked  like  a  fence  rail,  and  at  the 
first  blow  the  door  was  broken  in  and  they  entered.  The 
palings  from  the  fences  were  jerked  off,  and  sooner  almost 
than  I  can  tell  it,  right  in  the  rain,  the  campfires  were 
burning  and  the  kettles  and  coffee  pots  boiling.  I  saw  the 
ingenuity  of  the  soldiers  exercised  many  times  later,  but 
I  could  not  understand  then,  and  never  have  since,  how 
they  could  make  so  many  fires  in  so  short  a  time  in  such 
a  soaking  rain.  The  next  morning  the  soldiers,  as  well 
as  all  the  fences,  had  disappeared. 

While  at  Collierville  I  learned  of  the  renewal  of  the 
quarrel  between  my  husband  and  Governor  Morton.  It 
began  in  this  way.  Samuel  J.  Wright  was  still  one  of  the 
enlisting  officers  in  Southern  Indiana.  He  wrote  a  letter 
to  my  husband  stating  that  certain  young  men  of  Harrison 
and  adjoining  counties  had  enlisted  under  an  agreement 
that  when  mustered  into  service  they  would  be  assigned 
to  the  Fifty-third,  but  instead  they  had  been  assigned  and 
were  then  serving  in  other  regiments,  and  that  such  decep- 
tion, as  he  termed  it,  "would  raise  h ."  "Little  Sam- 
my" never  hesitated  for  a  phrase.  He  admired  Thaddeus 
Stevens  and  Stevens'  style  of  expression.  My  husband 
wrote  Governor  Morton,  asking  him  why  his  regiment  was 
not  getting  any  of  the  recruits.  The  Governor  answered 
that  none  had  enlisted  who  desired  to  be  sent  to  the  Fifty- 
third.  A  copy  of  the  letter  of  Mr.  Wright  to  my  husband 
was  sent  to  the  Governor.  Thereupon  the  Governor  wrote 
the  following  letter: 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  213 

Executive  Department,  Indianapolis, 

February  4,  1863 
Colonel  W.  Q.  Gresham: 

Sir: — Your  letter  is  at  hand  and    confirms    the  impression 
before  entertained   of  your   purpose  and  character.     If,  as  you 
say  in  your  letter,   you   are   desirous  of  serving  your  country, 
you  can  best  do  so  by  resigning  the  office  you  hold. 
A  reasonable  time  will  be  given  you  to  do  so. 

Respectfully, 

O.  P.  Morton. 

This  letter  of  Governor  Morton's  was  received  while 
I  was  at  Collier ville.  I  preserved  it.  A  copy  was  sent  to 
General  Hurlbut.     His  disposition  of  it  follows: 

Headquarters,   Sixteenth  Army  Corps, 

Memphis,  February  14,  1863 
Brig.  Genl.  L.  Thomas, 

Adj.  Genl.  U.  S.  A. 
General: — 

I  have  the  honor  to  enclose  you  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  His 
Excellency  Governor  Morton  of  Indiana  to  Colonel  W.  Q.  Gres- 
ham, Fifty-third  Indiana  Infantry,  a  part  of  my  command,  and  to 
request  that  the  attention  of  the  Secretary  of  War  may  be  called 
to  it. 

Without  any  reference  to  the  misunderstanding  between  the 
Governor  and  Colonel  Gresham  I  desire  simply  to  say  that 
there  appears  too  much  of  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  His  Excel- 
lency to  consider  the  officers  and  soldiers  furnished  by  the  State 
for  the  service  of  the  United  States  as  within  control  of  the  State 
executive  as  to  military  rewards  and  punishments,  and  that  this 
is  a  growing  evil  tending  to  break  up  proper  subordination  and 
respect  to  their  military  superiors.  The  threat  included  in  the 
last  paragraph  is  an  assumption  of  power. 

Colonel  Gresham  has  served  under  me  for  a  year  past  and  I 
have  always  found  him  a  capable,  brave,  and  energetic  officer  in 
no  wise  deserving  the  language  contained  in  this  letter. 
Very  Respectfully,  Your  Obdt.  Servt., 

S.  A.  Hurlbut, 
Commg.  i6th'Army  Corps.  Maj.  Genl.,  U.  S.  A. 


214       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

War  Department 
A.  G.  U.     February  5,  1863 
Respectfully  submitted  to  the  General-in-Chief. 

Thomas  M.  Vincent, 
Asst.  Adjt.  General 

No  action  seems  to  be  required  in  this  case.  The  evil  referred 
to  by  General  Hurlbut  tends  to  destroy  all  efficiency  and  disci- 
pline of  the  army. 

H.  W.  Halleck, 

February  26,  1863.  General-in-Chief 

Meanwhile,  not  knowing  what  action  the  War  Depart- 
ment had  taken,  when  the  word  came  that  Governor  Mor- 
ton had  gone  to  Washington  to  see  Mr.  Lincoln  and  have 
Gresham  dismissed  on  the  ground  that  he  was  disloyal, 
Colonel  Dornblaser,  of  the  Forty-sixth  Illinois;  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  William  Cam,  commanding  the  Fourteenth  Illi- 
nois; Colonel  George  C.  Rogers,  of  the  Fifteenth  Illinois; 
Colonel  George  E.  Bryant,  of  the  Twelfth  Wisconsin;  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Richard  Ritter,  commanding  the  Twenty- 
eighth  Illinois;  Colonel  Cyrus  Hall,  commanding  the 
Second  Brigade,  Fourth  Division,  Sixteenth  Army  Corps; 
Colonel  William  H.  Morgan,  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Indiana; 
and  every  field  officer  present  of  the  Fifty-third  Indiana, 
wrote  to  Mr.  Lincoln  protesting  against  the  threat  of 
Governor  Morton,  who  in  order  to  gratify  a  personal 
animosity  would  have  a  brave  and  efficient  officer  dismissed 
and  disgraced  on  the  pretext  that  that  officer  was  disloyal. 
Instead,  many  said  he  should  be  promoted. 

Mr.  Slaughter,  my  husband's  old  partner,  who  was  a 
great  admirer  and  friend  of  Governor  Morton  and  always 
apprehensive  that  his  impetuous  young  friend  would  get 
into  trouble,  heard  of  the  quarrel  before  the  War  Depart- 
ment acted.  After  securing  copies  of  the  correspondence, 
Mr.  Slaughter  took  Samuel  J.  Wright  to  the  Governor 
and  secured  an  understanding   that  if  the  Colonel  would 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  215 

withdraw  the  imputation  in  his  letter  to  the  Governor, 
the  Governor  would  be  satisfied.1  The  Colonel  declined, 
and  there  never  was  a  reconciliation. 

The  original  letter  of  Governor  Morton,  the  copy  of 
the  letter  my  husband  wrote  him,  the  original  letter  of 
Samuel  J.  Wright,  and  the  letters  of  Mr.  Slaughter  are  the 
only  papers  I  ever  lost.  But  I  did  not  really  loose  them. 
I  loaned  them  to  an  ex- Union  officer  who  thought  many  of 
the  incidents  of  the  war  had  best  be  left  untold.  What  I 
have  set  forth,  including  the  protests  of  the  brother  officers, 
were  furnished  me  from  the  files  of  the  War  Department. 

The  talk  of  "On  to  Vicksburg,"  and  the  movement  of 
the  troops,  made  my  husband  terribly  anxious  and  nervous 
in  his  convalescence,  fearing  that  he  would  be  left  behind. 
Still,  I  was  not  prepared  for  his  action.  When  the  orders 
came  for  his  regiment  to  join  the  movement,  he  was  still 
so  weak  he  staggered  when  he  walked.  The  influence  of 
will  power  over  the  body  was  never  more  strikingly  illus- 
trated. Entreaties  were  vain.  I  went  to  Memphis  with 
him  and  the  troops.  At  the  station  at  Collierville  sick 
soldiers  who  were  being  taken  to  Memphis  hospitals  were 
lying  on  the  platforms  and  the  floors  of  the  station.  They 
were  too  weak  to  walk.  I  said  it  was  a  shame  to  treat 
soldiers  in  this  way,  and  in  turn  was  told  this  was  war, 
that  they  were  fortunate  in  being  taken  to  the  hospitals. 
On  our  arrival  at  Memphis  the  troops  were  marched  straight 
to  the  levee,  preparatory  to  embarking  on  a  steamboat. 
While  waiting  for  a  boat  to  take  the  troops  south,  my  hus- 
band took  me  on  board  a  steamboat  bound  for  the  North. 
From  the  rear  cabin  of  my  boat,  which  soon  swung  out 
into  the  stream,  I  watched  him  until  out  of  sight,  but  it 
was  a  long  time  before  I  went  to  sleep  that  night. 

Instead  of  going  on  to  Vicksburg  the  Fifty-third  was 
ordered  back  into  camp  east  of  Memphis.  Soon  letters 
began  coming  to  me.     They  were  largely  personal  —  about 

iSee  pages  227-8. 


216       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

my  brother's  resigning.  One  said:  "Dr.  Slaughter's  resigna- 
tion has  been  accepted  and  he  has  gone  home;  he  ought 
to  go  to  Dixie." 

Again  Mr.  Gresham  was  on  the  court  martial,  as  the 
following  letter  states: 

Memphis,  Tenn., 

April  i,  1863 

I  am  still  on  the  court  martial — no  prospect  of  getting  off 
soon,  especially  if  we  remain  at  Memphis.  Cases  come  in  on  us 
faster  than  we  can  dispose  of  them. 

I  have  not  yet  received  the  letter  that  you  said  Mr.  Slaughter 
was  going  to  write.  It  is  but  seldom  that  it  is  the  good  fortune 
for  any  man  to  have  as  good  a  friend  as  I  have  in  Mr.  Slaughter. 
He  is  one  of  the  men  who  will  never  under  any  circumstances 
prove  untrue  to  a  friend.  I  guess  he  takes  more  interest  in  my 
affair  with  Governor  Morton  than  I  do  myself.  So  far  as  Gov- 
ernor Morton  is  concerned,  I  neither  love  nor  fear  him. 

I  hope  you  are  not  alarmed  about  the  Rebel  invasion  of 
Kentucky.  I  think  Burnside  will  miss  the  thing  in  the  end.  I 
think  our  prospects  for  bringing  down  the  rebellion  are  now 
brighter  than  they  have  ever  been.  If  we  only  hold  them  where 
we  have  them  for  a  year,  mere  hunger  will  conquer  them  without 
another  battle.  Just  think  of  a  government  being  reduced  to 
such  straitened  circumstances  that  it  has  to  go  into  every  little 
grocery  store  and  impress  every  pound  of  flour.  That  of  itself 
shows  that  Dixie  is  hard  up  for  bread. 

Soon  after  I  reached  my  home  in  Corydon  I  was  taken 
sick  with  typhoid  fever.  As  the  Fifty-third  Indiana  Volun- 
teers was  one  of  the  many  regiments  that  still  was  held  at 
or  near  Memphis,  my  husband  got  leave  to  come  home  and 
see  me.  On  his  return  to  Memphis,  cheerful  and  interest- 
ing letters  soon  began  coming  about  the  expected  campaign 
against  Vicksburg. 

Memphis,  Tenn., 

May  1,  1863 

I  arrived  here  yesterday  evening,  finding  all  quiet  and  the  boys 
in  good  health.     The  health  of  the  regiment  is  much  better  than 


CORINTH    AND    MEMPHIS  217 

it  has  ever  been  since  we  left  Indiana.  My  health  is  good;  I  feel 
stronger  than  I  did  before  I  left  you  Monday.  I  boarded  the 
Liberty  at  New  Albany  Monday  evening,  preferring  the  river  to 
the  railroad.  I  had  a  very  pleasant  trip.  Dr.  William  Slaughter 
got  on  the  boat  at  Newburg — he  has  been  at  home  fifty  days  on 
sick  leave  and  is  now  on  his  way  to  his  regiment,  the  68th,  at 
Vicksburg.  At  Evansville  Mr.  Dunn,  Mr.  Wright's  brother-in- 
law,  came  aboard,  so  you  see  I  had  company. 

The  weather  is  very  much  as  it  is  in  Indiana,  but  the  trees  are 
much  heavier  leaved  than  they  are  there. 

Had  I  known  before  leaving  home  what  I  do  now,  I  should 
have  remained  a  while  longer.  There  is  no  prospect  of  a  move 
that  I  can  see.  I  wish  you  were  well  enough  to  come  down  and 
stay  a  while  with  me.  There  is  such  a  nice  place,  which  is  close 
to  our  camp,  where  we  could  lodge  and  board  in  camp.  Quarter- 
master Thomas  has  his  wife  with  him;  she  is  boarding  with  us  in 
camp. 

Memphis,  Tenn., 

May  7,  1863 

This  will  make  the  fourth  letter  I  have  written  you  since  I 
arrived  here  last  Friday,  still  I  have  not  heard  a  word  from  you 
since  I  left  home. 

We  are  just  getting  news  from  Hooker.  As  far  as  we  have 
heard,  he  has  done  well.  I  hope  that  the  tide  will  not  turn  against 
him.  I  feel  very  much  encouraged  at  the  state  of  things  now; 
everything  looks  auspicious.  I  have  no  doubt  about  our  ability 
to  put  down  the  rebellion  in  a  short  time.  As  I  have  frequently 
said,  when  the  rebellion  is  put  down  and  the  government  of  our 
fathers  is  once  more  secure,  I  will  belong  to  you. 

I  don't  see  how  any  man  who  loves  his  country  and  who  has 
any  spirit,  can  be  content  at  home  now.   .    .    . 

When  I  returned,  I  was  put  on  another  court  martial,  so  I 
infer  that  I  have  given  general  satisfaction  in  that  way.  I  come 
into  the  city  from  camp  at  8  a.m.  and  return  at  4  p.m.  I  hope 
you  will  be  able  to  come  down  and  stay  a  while  with  me,  if  we 
remain  here  this  summer.  .  .  .  What  say  you?  There  is  a 
most  charming  place  close  to  camp,  where  you  can  stay. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
BEFORE   VICKSBURG 


THE  TAKING  OF  VICKSBURG  —  COLONEL  GRESHAM  S 
LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT,  WRITTEN  FROM  MAY  1 5,  1 863, 
TO    CLOSE    OF    THE    SIEGE. 

'<r"PHE  campaign  against  Vicksburg,"  says  General 
*  Grant  in  his  " Memoirs,"  "was  suggested  and  de- 
veloped by  circumstances."  With  some  of  the  personal- 
ities eliminated,  I  present  several  letters  of  one  of  Gen- 
eral Grant's  colonels  (my  husband)  descriptive  of  actions 
from  Memphis  to  the  fall  of  Vicksburg. 

Ten  Miles  below  Vicksburg, 

May  15,  1863 

We  left  Memphis  on  the  old  "Fannie  Bullet"  Monday  evening, 
and  arrived  at  Young's  Point,  four  miles  above  Vicksburg,  Tuesday 
morning,  where  we  disembarked  and  marched  across  the  country 
to  our  present  position,  arriving  here  yesterday,  Thursday,  after 
a  very  exhausting  march  through  swamps.  It  commenced  raining 
about  the  time  we  left  Young's  Point,  and  continued  with  slight 
intermissions  until  yesterday  evening.  Had  it  not  been  for  the 
rain,  we  would  have  got  over  without  any  trouble.  Wednesday 
we  marched  about  five  miles,  and  yesterday  we  marched  about  six 
miles.  We  are  now  at  the  point  where  the  troops  reembark  below 
Vicksburg  to  go  to  the  mouth  of  Big  Black  River.  At  that  place 
we  will  disembark  again  and  march  up  Big  Black  about  twenty- 
five  miles  to  join  General  Grant's  army.  We  will  be  delayed  here 
until  to-morrow  for  want  of  transportation.  The  first  and  second 
brigades  of  our  division  are  not  up  yet.  We  left  them  at  Mem- 
phis; they  will  join  us  in  a  few  days.  I  am  not  able  to  discover 
anything  different  between  the  weather  here  and  at  Memphis. 

Some  of  the  boys  think  it  is  hotter  here  than  at  Memphis,  but 

218 


BEFORE    VICKSBURG  219 

I  don't  notice  the  change.     Everything  is  more  forward  than  at 
Memphis.     The  boys  are  out  gathering  blackberries. 

Hains  Bluff,  Miss., 

May  23,  1863 

I  left  Grand  Gulf  Monday  night  and  joined  the  army  at 
Vicksburg  Wednesday  morning.  Our  division  was  immediately 
ordered  to  Hains  Bluff  to  prevent  the  Rebels  from  coming  in 
our  rear.  We  were  on  the  battlefield  nearly  all  day  Wednesday. 
Cannonading  was  frightful.  The  division  is  now  under  march- 
ing orders;  to  what  point  I  can't  say.  Everything  looks  like  a 
fight.  I  am  ready  and  I  assure  you  I  feel  well — never  felt 
better. 

Judge  Otto  informed  me  that  Ben  was  dangerously  wounded; 
I  trust  not  mortally.  Keep  me  advised  of  the  progress  of  the 
events  at  home.  As  soon  as  I  have  time  I  will  write  you  particu- 
lars.    Write  and  direct  your  letters  to  Cairo,  to  be  forwarded. 

Not  a  sick  man  in  the  regiment;  all  in  fine  health. 

Near  Vicksburg,  Miss., 
June  1,  1863 

Things  stand  very  much  as  they  did  when  I  wrote  you  two  or 
three  days  ago.  There  has  been  less  firing  to-day  than  usual, 
and  with  the  exception  of  an  occasional  shell  from  our  artillery, 
all  is  quiet.  It  is  a  most  glorious  night;  the  moon  rose  clear  and 
full  about  dark,  shedding  a  mellow  light  over  the  hills  and  valleys, 
reminding  me  of  home.  In  fancy  I  can  see  you  at  the  front  door 
to-night,  as  I  used  to,  enjoying  the  moonlight  scenes. 

We  are  on  the  extreme  left  of  Grant's  army,  which  throws  us 
on  the  river  below  the  city.  Our  camp  is  not  on  the  river,  but 
our  line  extends  that  far.  Yesterday  we  had  a  sharp  skirmish. 
To-day  we  had  oie  man  wounded  in  the  arm.  You  doubtless 
think  we  are  living  in  the  swamps  on  scant  rations,  but  you  are 
mistaken,  We  are  on  high  ground.  We  have  a  pleasant  breeze 
during  the  day,  and  the  nights  are  delightful.  So  far  as  eating  is 
concerned  we  are  well  off.  No  doubt  our  fare  is  better  than  you 
have  at  home.  We  have  as  much  good  fresh  beef  as  we  want. 
I  send  the  boys  out  every  day  and  they  drive  in  a  good  beef.  The 
Rebels  were  driven  inside  their  works  so  suddenly  that  they  left 


220       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  greater  portion  of  their  beef  cattle  behind  them,  and  the  graz- 
ing is  so  good  that  they  are  all  fat.  We  have  tea  and  coffee.  We 
have  two  good  milk  cows  and  plenty  of  milk.  Then  we  have 
vegetables,  honey,  and  wheat  and  corn  bread.  Of  course,  we  do 
not  suffer  for  want  of  chickens.  How  do  you  like  that  for  a  bill 
of  fare?  You  see  there  is  no  occasion  for  our  friends  at  home  to 
be  uneasy  about  us  on  account  of  short  rations. 

There  is  very  little  sickness  in  the  regiment.  No  one  is  seri- 
ously ill. 

I  cannot  say  when  we  will  have  possession  of  Vicksburg;  may- 
be before  you  receive  this  letter,  and  the  siege  may  continue  for 
a  month  or  more  yet.  General  Grant  thinks  he  can  starve  the 
enemy  out  without  sacrificing  his  men  in  an  assault. 

The  Rebels'  hope  is  in  Johnston  now.  The}'  profess  to  believe, 
that  is,  some  of  them  do,  that  Johnston  will  come  up  in  our 
rear,  attack  us,  and  raise  the  siege.  Deserters  come  over  to  us 
every  day.  I  saw  two  yesterday  who  had  just  surrendered  them- 
selves. They  belong  to  the  Fifty-second  Georgia.  They  say  that 
the  men  are  limited  to  half  a  pound  of  beef  and  three-quarters 
of  a  pound  of  meal  a  day.  They  tell  the  same  tale  as  all  the 
deserters,  that  the  Rebel  soldiers  are  out  of  heart;  that  they  have 
no  confidence  in  their  ability  to  hold  Vicksburg;  and  that  all,  or 
nearly  all,  want  to  surrender.  This  may  not  all  be  true,  but  a 
great  deal  of  it  is.   .    .    . 

Camp  near  Vicksburg,  Miss., 
June  6,  1863 
Yesterday  evening  we  advanced  our  camp  three-quarters 
of  a  mile.  We  are  now  in  a  big  hollow  with  our  pickets  and 
sharpshooters  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  in  advance  of 
us  and  on  top  of  the  hill.  Our  camp  is  not  more  than  four  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  enemy's  works.  Grant's  army  is  patient  and 
confident.  The  boys  have  never  been  whipped  and  they  do  not 
believe  they  ever  can  be.  On  the  contrary,  the  Rebels  here  have 
always  been  whipped.  A  great  portion  of  the  Rebel  army  in 
Vicksburg  was  whipped  at  Donelson,  Shiloh,  Corinth,  and  other 
places  of  less  note,  and  their  spirit  is  to  a  considerable  extent 
broken.  All  the  deserters  that  come  over,  and  they  come  over 
every  day,  concur  in  stating  that  the  Rebel  soldiers  in  Vicksburg 


BEFORE    VICKSBURG  221 

are  out  of  heart,  that  they  do  not  believe  they  can  hold  the 
place  and  that  they  want  it  surrendered.  I  suppose  Pemberton 
holds  out  hoping  Johnston  may  be  able  to  collect  an  army  large 
enough  to  come  in  on  our  rear  and  raise  the  siege.  I  can't  say 
when  Vicksburg  will  fall,  for  I  do  not  know  how  well  the  place 
is  supplied  with  provisions.  I  can't  think,  though,  they  can  hold 
out  long,  nor  can  I  think  Johnston  can  get  here  soon  with  an  army 
large  enough  to  endanger  our  safety.  Last  night  our  boys  were 
engaged  digging  rifle  pits.  We  were  in  easy  range  of  the  enemy, 
but  not  a  gun  was  fired  during  the  night.  To-night  we  work 
again.  Soldiering  here  is  not  a  frolic,  but  the  boys  are  all  satis- 
fied. The  health  of  the  regiment  continues  to  be  good.  Captain 
Dunn  of  the  "Victor"  is  good  enough  to  be  the  bearer  of  this 
letter.  He  will  bring  you  two  fine  young  mocking  birds.  Cap- 
tain Burnap  of  the  Seventh  Ohio  Battery  gave  me  four  and 
Captain  Dunn  agreed  to  take  them  up  for  half.  Take  good  care 
of  them,  for  they  will  make  nice  pets.  Don't  feed  them  too  much 
while  they  are  young. 

Near  Vicksburg, 

June  18,  1863 
Firing  along  the  line  is  incessant.  We  are  now  used  to  it 
and  it  amounts  to  nothing.  Our  regiment  has  been  remarkably 
fortunate  thus  far.  I  have  had  but  two  men  slightly  injured. 
Every  other  regiment  in  the  division  has  lost  more  or  less  in  the 
killed  and  wounded.  We  have  been  exposed  more  than  any  other 
regiment,  for  we  have  advanced  the  line  three  times.  I  watch 
my  men  closely  when  they  are  skirmishing  and  keep  them  covered 
as  well  as  I  can.  Those  that  have  been  killed  or  wounded  in  the 
division  have  generally  been  careless. 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers, 

Near  Vicksburg,  June  19,  1863 
We  are  just  going  on  duty;  will  remain  in  the  rifle  pits  twenty- 
four  hours.  The  rest  of  our  regiment  will  throw  up  some  new 
earthworks  to-night.  We  will  finish,  or  try  to  finish,  a  work  that 
some  of  our  men  were  driven  from  last  night.  About  9  o'clock 
last  night  we  had  quite  a  scare.  The  Rebels  sallied  forth  to 
drive  our  working  party  back.  They  opened  a  furious  cannonade 
15 


222       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

at  the  same  time  that  the  infantry  advanced  on  our  line,  or  rather, 
on  our  working  party.  A  lieutenant  of  the  Twelfth  Wisconsin 
was  wounded  in  the  leg,  and  four  or  five  men  were  more  or  less 
injured.  The  Rebels  were  finally  driven  back.  It  was  quiet 
during  the  rest  of  the  night.  We  may  have  a  muss  with  them 
again  to-night,  for  they  understand  the  importance  of  preventing 
us  from  taking  the  position  that  we  are  working  for.  We  are 
trying  to  throw  up  works  for  a  battery. 

In  Camp  near  Vicksburg,  Miss., 

June  24,  1863 

Major  Vestal  is  now  on  duty  with  three  companies,  and  they 
had  a  sharp  little  fight  this  morning,  but  I  have  not  heard  the 
result.  The  Rebels  made  a  sally  on  our  boys  and  tried  to  drive 
them  from  the  rifle  pits,  but  they  failed.  Night  before  last  the 
enemy  made  a  dash  or  charge  on  our  line,  and  the  Fourteenth 
Illinois  and  parts  of  the  Fifteenth  Illinois  disgracefully  aban- 
doned the  ditches  and  broke  in  confusion  to  the  rear  and  gave  the 
enemy  possession  of  our  rifle  pits.  This  was  about  three  hundred 
yards  in  front  of  two  64-pound  guns  and  the  Fifth  Ohio  Battery- 
We  came  near  losing  our  artillery,  and  in  fact,  the  enemy  could 
have  taken  our  guns  if  they  had  pushed  ahead  without  halting. 
Our  regiment  was  on  duty  three  or  four  hundred  yards  from  the 
enemy's  works  when  the  attack  was  made.  Our  boys  threw  down 
the  spades  and  picks,  shouldered  their  guns,  and  held  their  ground, 
and  then  took  the  ground  abandoned  by  the  Fourteenth  Illinois 
and  held  the  pits  until  morning.  The  attack  was  made  about 
midnight.  The  Fifty-third  stands  high,  for  she  more  than  held 
her  own.  The  enemy  makes  efforts  almost  every  night  to  take 
our  batteries,  or  some  of  them,  and  spike  the  guns. 

You  will  see  before  this  reaches  you  that  we  attacked  them 
on  the  20th  inst.,  simultaneously  all  along  the  line.  We  went 
into  the  rifle  pits  at  dark  the  evening  before  the  attack,  and  at 
break  of  day  every  piece  of  artillery  we  have  in  position  opened 
out.  Being  on  duty,  we  were  between  our  artillery  and  the  enemy 
and  had  a  good  chance  to  witness  the  whole  thing.  The  cannon- 
ading was  fierce  beyond  all  description.  Woe  unto  the  Rebel 
that  showed  his  head  above  the  works  during  the  cannonading, 
for  there  were  always  a  hundred  rifles  to  drive  at  him.     The 


BEFORE    VICKSBURG  223 

infantry  kept  the  enemy  quiet  after  an  hour  or  three  quarters, 
except  an  occasional  shot,  and  our  artillery  had  their  own  way. 
It  was  General  Grant's  order  that  the  fire  should  continue  for 
six  hours  without  intermission.  We  did  them  a  great  deal  of 
damage,  but  how  much  I  can't  say. 

The  health  of  the  regiment  is  not  good.  We  have  more  sick 
men  now  than  we  have  had  before  for  twelve  months,  but  the 
sickness,  with  a  few  exceptions,  is  not  of  a  dangerous  character. 
It  is  mostly  chills  and  fever,  and  I  think  is  brought  on  by  the  hot 
days  and  cold  nights.  The  boys  work  every  night  until  they  get 
into  a  profuse  perspiration,  and  when  they  rest  they  cool  off  too 
suddenly.  We  report  45  men  sick  and  unfit  for  duty.  I  work 
hard  to  keep  them  on  their  feet  and  in  good  spirits.  I  visit  the 
hospital  every  day  and  cheer  the  sick  up.  More  can  be  done 
that  way  than  you  would  imagine.  The  Fourteenth  Illinois 
has  75  sick,  the  Twenty-eighth  has  65,  the  Twelfth  Wisconsin 
with  700  men  has  156,  the  Thirty-third  Wisconsin  about  the  same 
way.  We  are  better  off  than  any  other  regiment  in  the  division. 
Our  boys  have  a  great  deal  of  will,  and  that  is  everything. 

I  have  just  heard  that  Lee  is  in  Pennsylvania  and  that 
Hooker  is  falling  back  on  Washington.  I  hope  it  is  true,  for  I 
want  something  done  that  will  make  the  North  realize  what  is 
going  on.  I  hope  Lee  will  get  into  Philadelphia.  If  Lee  should 
lay  waste  the  half  of  Pennsylvania,  it  would  result  in  good  to  us. 
I  want  to  see  the  whole  North  feel  just  as  the  South  does,  that 
the  enemy  must  be  conquered  at  all  hazards. 

In  Camp  near  Vicksburg, 

June  28,  1863 
I  am  satisfied  now  that  it  was  nothing  but  heavy  duty  that 
made  the  boys  sick.  For  ten  days  the  whole  or  half  the  regiment 
has  been  on  duty  without  any  rest.  It  is  terrible  to  stand  out  in 
the  rifle  pits  in  the  broiling  sun  all  day.  We  have  been  in  some 
close  places  since  I  wrote  you  last.  Thursday  evening  I  received 
an  order  to  detail  200  men  from  my  regiment  and  one  field  officer 
for  the  work,  and  open  the  ditch  if  possible  that  the  enemy 
took  from  the  Fourteenth  Illinois  and  afterwards  filled  up.  The 
pit  was  taken  from  them  Monday  night,  and  our  men  (not  the 
Fifty-third)  had  tried  to  take  the  ground  and  open  the  pit  Tuesday 


224       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

night  and  again  Wednesday  night,  but  the  Rebs  knew  the  impor- 
tance of  preventing  our  men  from  getting  the  position  a  second 
time,  and  they  were  ready  and  our  boys  fell  back. 

At  the  appointed  time  I  reported  with  my  men,  and  as  soon 
as  it  was  dark  enough,  I  advanced  cautiously  to  the  place,  each 
man  armed  with  his  guns  and  a  spade  or  pick.  I  had  given  the 
boys  orders  to  keep  quiet  and  avoid  talking,  and  under  no  circum- 
stances to  fire  a  gun  until  I  gave  the  order.  We  advanced  under 
cover  of  the  hills  until  we  got  within  about  ioo  or  150  yards  of 
where  we  were  to  work,  and  then  got  down  and  crawled  up.  I 
went  up  at  the  head  of  the  column.  I  had  just  got  the  boys  on 
the  line — in  fact,  the  left  was  not  yet  in  position — when  the  enemy 
opened  a  deadly  fire  on  the  then  right  companies,  A,  C,  and  H. 
I  happened  to  be  with  these  companies  when  the  fire  opened,  and 
I  had  difficulty  to  prevent  the  boys  from  returning  the  fire.  Not- 
withstanding the  heavy  fire  of  the  enemy,  in  good  range  and  no 
cover,  I  put  the  boys  to  work.  They  had  to  lie  on  their  stomachs 
and  use  the  spades  in  front  of  them  until  they  got  a  hole  big  enough 
to  cover  their  bodies.  In  less  than  ten  minutes  I  sent  six  men  to 
the  rear,  wounded,  including  Captain  Wakefield.  We  were  with- 
in 75  or  100  yards  of  a  large  Rebel  fort  that  is  so  high  that  the 
shadow  of  the  fort  extended  as  far  as  our  pit,  and  the  Rebels, 
not  eliciting  a  return  fire  from  us,  concluded  we  had  been  driven 
back  as  usual.  But  they  were  badly  mistaken,  for  in  three 
hours  we  had  the  old  pit  open  and  extended  to  the  left  200  yards 
further. 

When  the  boys  got  the  work  far  enough  advanced  to  afford 
them  cover,  they  called  out  to  the  Rebels  to  come  on.  They 
dared  them  out,  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  I  was  anxious  for  the 
Rebs  to  make  a  charge  on  us,  as  they  had  on  the  Fourteenth,  for 
I  knew  we  could  send  them  back  in  dismay,  and  I  wanted  to 
punish  them  for  what  they  had  done  to  our  boys.  The  wounded 
boys  will  all,  but  one,  get  well,  Fred  Nolla  of  Company  C; 
he  will  die. 

The  bullets  flew  around  me  but  I  was  not  touched.  I  believe 
I  could  have  held  the  boys  under  fire  until  every  man  was  shot, 
for  they  never  faltered.  It  requires  more  nerve  to  face  fire  after 
night  than  in  the  day.  The  affair  has  set  our  boys  right  up  in 
the  division.     The  engineer  said  it  was  the  most  daring  thing 


BEFORE    VICKSBURG  225 

that  had  been  done  in  the  division,  and  it  is.     General  Lauman 
was  highly  pleased. 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers, 

Near  Vicksburg,  July  2,  1863 

I  hope  the  Rebel  raiders  have  not  scared  you  out  of  your  wits. 
By  the  way,  I  see  the  Rebels  have  made  quite  a  little  raid  into 
Indiana,  but  it  didn't  amount  to  much  after  all.  How  did  the 
people  about  Corydon  take  it?  I  am  glad  all  the  scoundrels  were 
punished  for  their  boldness.  Don't  think  you  need  to  have  any 
fears  of  extensive  raids  into  Indiana;  not  unless  things  change 
very  much  from  what  they  are  now.  I  am  not  satisfied  that  it 
would  not  have  a  salutary  effect  if  a  Rebel  army  would  invade 
Indiana  and  live  in  the  State  a  few  months.  It  would  bring  some 
of  the  Rebel  sympathizers  to  their  senses. 

I  have  heard  nothing  new  on  the  line  for  several  days.  The 
weather  is  very  warm,  but  not  so  warm  as  you  folks  at  home 
imagine.  I  have  suffered  more  from  the  heat  in  Indiana  than  I 
have  since  we  arrived  here.  I  saw  General  Grant  day  before  yes- 
terday. He  has  convened  a  military  commission  and  has  made 
me  president  of  it.  He  says  I  will  go  to  General  Sherman  soon — 
that  there  is  no  doubt  about  it — but  that  our  part  of  the  line  is  too 
weak  for  me  to  leave  just  now. 

Near  Vicksburg, 

July  4,  1863 

Vicksburg  is  ours.  The  enemy  sent  out  a  flag  of  truce  yes- 
terday about  10  a.  m.  Hostilities  were  immediately  suspended, 
but  General  Grant  and  General  Pemberton  were  not  able  to  come 
to  terms  until  10  o'clock  this  morning.  I  saw  the  Rebels  march 
out  and  strike  their  arms. 

I  went  over  to  their  works  immediately  in  our  front,  and  found 
several  old  college  mates.  One  of  them,  O'Reilly,  captain  of  a 
battery,  almost  shed  tears.  He  recognized  me  as  soon  as  he 
saw  me,  and  came  running  up  to  me  and  exclaimed,  "Wat!  My 
God,  is  that  you  ?  Have  we  been  fighting  each  other  ?  I  would  n't 
have  killed  you,  and  known  it,  for  the  world!"  The  whole  party 
seemed  rejoiced  to  meet  me,  and  I  believe  they  were  sincere. 
O'Reilly  had  a  magnificent  battery,  and  although  I  hate  treason 


226       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  will  never  compromise  with  it  as  long  as  I  live,  I  could  not 
help  feeling  bad  for  him,  for  with  me  the  ties  of  friendship  have 
always  been  strong.     We  are  now  under  marching  orders. 

Our  corps,  four  divisions,  joins  General  Sherman  on  Black 
River,  and  a  movement  will  then  be  made  on  Joe  Johnston.  In 
the  same  telegram  announcing  the  surrender  our  corps  received 
orders  to  be  ready  to  march  after  Johnston.  We  will  go  to-night 
—  that  is,  we  will  start.  I  have  no  time  to  write  now.  Mr. 
(Chaplain)  Curey  will  deliver  this  letter  to  you. 

Headquarters,  53D  Indiana  Volunteers, 
Big  Black  River,  July  6,  1863 

I  have  no  time  to  write  you  at  length.  I  send  this  by  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Thorton  of  Leavenworth,  who  goes  home,  having 
resigned  on  account  of  ill  health.  Yesterday  evening  we  arrived 
here,  fifteen  miles  east  of  Vicksburg  at  the  bridge  over  Big  Black. 
We  move  at  5  o'clock  in  the  morning  toward  Jackson.  Johnston 
is  some  six  miles  ahead  of  us  now.  He  will  retreat  to-morrow 
morning  or  we  will  have  a  fight  with  him.  General  Sherman  com- 
mands our  force — three  army  corps.  I  cannot  say  how  far  we 
will  go  into  the  interior.  Rumor  says  we  are  going  to  Chatta- 
nooga to  help  Rosecrans,  but  I  doubt  it.  We  started  at  10  o'clock 
yesterday  and  marched  eighteen  miles  through  the  heat  and  dust 
until  sundown.  What  do  you  think  of  this?  We  only  had  six 
men  less  than  we  started  with  when  we  stacked  arms.  Many 
regiments  had  less  than  one-half  the  men  that  they  started  with 
when  they  stacked  arms.  Better  soldiers  than  the  Fifty- third 
never  lived.  Major  Vestal  was  left  at  Vicksburg  sick,  but  I  look 
for  him  to-morrow.  He  is  a  very  fine  officer  and  I  think  a  great 
deal  of  him. 

My  health  is  fine.  We  left  quite  a  number  of  sick  men  at 
Vicksburg.  They  were  men  who  had  been  worked  down  during 
the  siege.     . 

Vicksburg,  Miss., 
July  22,  1863 
I  have  an  opportunity  to  write  a  note  that  will  go  direct  to 
you  by  a  discharged  soldier. 

General  Sherman  told  me  yesterday  that  General  Grant  had 


BEFORE    VICKSBURG  227 

recommended  me  for  a  promotion.  Don't  say  anything  about  it, 
for  I  might  not  succeed.  General  Grant  has  recommended  me 
without  ever  saying  a  word  to  me  on  the  subject,  and  I  feel  grati- 
fied, for  it  shows  that  he  thinks  I  am  deserving.  If  I  am  pro- 
moted I  may  be  at  home  a  short  time  before  being  assigned  to  a 
command. 

Don't  be  discouraged  because  Morgan  captured  Cory  don. 
I  tell  you  the  Southern  Confederacy  is  fast  playing  out,  and  we 
will  destroy  their  army  as  we  are  going  in  the  interior  of  their 
country.  You  need  not  fear  Morgan.  I  think  he  is  captured 
by  this  time.  Do  not  despond,  for  I  expect  to  spend  a  good  many 
pleasant  days  with  you  yet. 

Vicksburg,  Miss., 

July  24,  1863 

We  arrived  here  yesterday,  marching  from  Jackson  by  way 
of  Raymond,  a  distance  of  more  than  fifty  miles  in  two  days  and 
a  half.  The  day  before  yesterday  we  marched  twenty-two  miles 
with  mercury  above  100.  It  was  an  awful  march.  Never  did 
the  Fifty-third  show  its  superiority  over  other  regiments  as  it  has 
on  this  march.  I  brought  every  one  of  my  men  through,  while 
other  regiments  have  scores  of  stragglers  behind  yet.  On  arriv- 
ing here  I  found  two  letters  from  you  of  the  5th  and  12th  insts., 
the  latter  giving  an  account  of  the  Morgan  raid.  How  I  would  like 
to  have  been  there  with  the  Fifty-third  and  a  few  more  of  the  same 
sort.     I  would  give  anything  in  the  world  to  get  after  Morgan. 

Vicksburg,  Miss., 
August  4,  1863 
I  expect  a  commission  as  brigadier-general  in  a  short  time 
and  it  is  important  that  I  should  be  here  when  it  arrives  so  that 
I  can  get  a  good  command.     I  am  still  in  good  health.     We  go 
to  Natchez  this  week. 

Vicksburg,  Miss., 
August  7,  1863 
I  could  have  been  advanced  long  ago  if  I  had  surrendered  my 
manhood  and  had  been  a  sycophant.     But  that  I  will  never  do. 
I  fought  my  way  up  in  spite  of  some  unscrupulous  scoundrels  at 


228        LIFE     OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

home  who  have  exerted  themselves  to  keep  me  down.  I  have 
served  my  country  long  and  faithfully  under  men  whom  I  knew 
to  be  my  inferiors,  but  light  is  at  last  dawning.  I  will  not  be 
indebted^  to  governors,  congressmen,  or  any  other  civil  magis- 
trates for  promotion,  as  more  than  one-half  the  generals  are. 

Since  Morgan  and  his  men  have  all  been  captured  I  hope 
you  are  in  better  spirits.  I  can  see  a  great  deal  to  encourage  us. 
In  the  last  three  months  the  Rebels  have  lost  over  100,000  men. 
They  have  been  defeated  everywhere.  Remember  where  the 
Union  army  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  then  think  where  it 
is  now.  We  have  cut  the  Confederacy  in  twain  and  the  people 
of  the  South  are  out  of  heart  and  say  they  want  peace  on  any 
terms.  I  know  this  is  so.  Even  here  in  Mississippi  where  trea- 
son was  respectable  for  years  before  the  war,  the  people  say 
they  are  whipped  and  see  nothing  ahead  but  total  destruction  if 
the  war  is  not  terminated. 


CHAPTER  XV 
MORGAN'S   RAID 


MORGAN  S      REASONS      FOR     HIS      RAID      INTO      INDIANA 

COUNTED    ON    AID    FROM    SYMPATHIZERS   NORTH    OF   THE   OHIO 

RIVER MORGAN     CAPTURES     TWO     STEAMERS     AND     CROSSES 

THE  RIVER  —  THE  DEFENSE  OF  CORYDON CARE  OF  CON- 
FEDERATE   WOUNDED. 

TT  was  several  days  after  the  Fourth  of  July,  the  day 
•*-  Vicksburg  fell,  before  we  heard  of  it,  even  by  tele- 
gram. Meanwhile,  and  before  some  of  the  preceding 
letters  came  to  me  from  Vicksburg,  General  John  Morgan 
had  passed  through  Cory  don,  closely  pursued  by  his  Ken- 
tucky neighbor,  General  Hobson,  commanding  the  Union 
cavalry. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  had  been  appre- 
hensions at  Corydon  of  a  guerrilla  expedition,  or  an  invasion 
from  the  South.  Several  times  we  were  roused  at  night 
and  prepared  to  leave  our  homes  because  of  a  supposed 
night  attack  on  the  town.  Late  in  the  Spring  of  1863, 
there  were  continual  rumors  that  the  Confederate  General 
John  Morgan,  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  and  his  command 
of  cavalry  would  invade  our  county.  Some  young  Ken- 
tuckians  visiting  Corydon  at  this  time  were  regarded  as 
spies,  for  it  was  known  that  practically  all  of  the  young  men 
of  Kentucky  were  in  the  Rebel  or  Union  army.  A  short 
time  before  Morgan  appeared,  Henry  Crutcher,  of  Meade 
County,  Kentucky,  made  a  visit  to  his  cousin,  Edward 
Aydelotte.  Henry  was  particularly  fond  of  horseback  riding 
with  the  young  ladies  of  the  town,  especially  with  his 
cousin,  Mollie  Jordan,  the  daughter  of  David  Jordan,  who 
lived  directly  opposite  us.  They  rode  over  all  the  river 
roads  to  the  south  and  the  crossroads  —  the  Mauckport 

229 


230        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Road  due  south,  the  Amsterdam  Road  to  the  southwest, 
and  the  Laconia  Road  to  the  southeast,  and  north  of  Cory- 
don  on  the  Salem  Road. 

The  first  man  of  Morgan's  command  to  enter  the  town 
was  Henry  Crutcher.  He  led  a  party  in  on  the  New 
Albany  Road  from  the  east.  Toward  evening  as  they 
were  moving  out  of  town  on  the  Salem  Road,  Henry 
stopped  to  pay  his  respects  to  Mollie. 

"I  haven't  time  to  pay  a  visit,  not  even  to  dismount, 
Cousin  Mollie.     Won't  you  give  me  a  cup  of  water?" 

"No,  you  Rebel;  go,  or  Hobson  will  get  you!"  was 
her  response. 

Undoubtedly  Morgan  was  deceived  by  the  reports  he 
received  as  to  the  aid  he  would  get  if  he  came  to  the  north 
side  of  the  Ohio  River.  Men  who  had  been  pronounced 
in  their  views  that  the  seceding  States  should  be  permitted 
to  depart  in  peace,  who  were  opposed  to  emancipation, 
shouldered  their  squirrel  rifles  "to  meet  the  invaders  of 
our  homes."  These  invaders  they  afterwards  denounced 
as  thieves  and  robbers  for  appropriating  all  of  the  fresh 
horses  within  five  or  six  miles  of  the  line  of  march,  for 
levying  and  exacting  a  tribute  of  $2,100  on  the  three  flour 
mills,  for  entering  the  stores  and  taking  boots,  socks,  and 
all  necessary  edibles.  In  place  of  the  good  horses  they 
took  they  left  their  ridden-down  Kentucky  thoroughbreds. 
Samuel  J.  Wright's  losses,  including  the  tribute  he  paid  on 
his  mill,  amounted  to  $5,000;  those  of  Douglass  and  Denbo 
to  $3,500.  William  Hisey  concealed  $690  in  a  drawer  in 
his  house,  but  it  was  found  and  taken  when  the  house  was 
entered.     This  was  "living  off  the  country"  —  war. 

General  Basil  Duke,  Morgan's  second  in  command,  said 
they  met  more  resistance  at  Corydon  than  at  any  other 
point  on  their  ride  from  Brandenburg  to  Buffington's  Ford, 
Ohio,  where  they  attempted  to  cross  the  Ohio  River  into 
Virginia.  It  was  told  me  by  Colonel  Bowles,  who  com- 
manded one  of  the  Kentucky  regiments,  that  their  original 


MORGAN'S    RAID  231 

intention  was  to  get  to  Penny  si  vania  and  join  General  Lee. 

In  all,  according  to  Basil  Duke,  Morgan  had  3,000  men. 
Years  afterward  I  heard  men  who  were  with  Morgan  say- 
that  4,000  men  confronted  them  at  Cory  don.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  there  were  but  600,  300  volunteers  and  300  Home 
Guards.  While  the  Cory  don  fight  was  only  a  skirmish, 
it  illustrates  the  fact  that  a  few  undisciplined  men  with 
arms  in  their  hands  can  and  sometimes  will  withstand  the 
advance  of  a  superior  force. 

On  the  evening  of  July  7  (Tuesday)  General  Morgan 
appeared  at  Brandenburg  and  captured  two  steamers,  the 
T.  J.  McComb  and  the  Alice  Dean.  Lieutenant-Colonel 
William  J.  Irwin  of  the  "Indiana  Legion"  or  Home 
Guards  at  Alton  heard  of  it  and  immediately  sent  to  Leav- 
enworth, by  the  steamer  Lady  Pike,  for  a  six-pound  gun 
and  the  Home  Guards  at  that  point,  and  dispatched  a 
courier  to  Colonel  Jordan  at  Corydon  for  reinforcements 
to  come  to  the  river  and  help  prevent  Morgan  from  cross- 
ing. It  was  early  evening  when  the  rider  galloped  into 
Corydon  and  soon  we  were  all  in  confusion;  women  and 
children  were  in  the  streets  prepared  to  leave. 

By  midnight  the  Lady  Pike  was  back  at  Alton  with 
the  gun  from  Leavenworth,  and  a  company  in  command 
of  Captain  Lynn  and  Colonel  Woodbury  to  man  it.  Be- 
fore sunrise  the  gun  had  been  dragged  across  the  county 
and  was  in  position  opposite  Brandenburg.  There  were 
also  present  Captains  Farquhar's,  Hufman's,  and  Hayes' 
companies  of  the  Indiana  Legion  or  Home  Guards;  in  all 
about  one  hundred  men. 

As  soon  as  there  was  any  lifting  of  the  fog,  which  hung 
long  after  the  sun  rose,  Colonel  Irwin  ordered  the  six- 
pounder  to  be  directed  at  the  boilers  of  the  McComb  and 
the  Dean,  and  fired  with  a  view  to  either  disabling  or 
sinking  these  boats  and  thus  preventing  the  crossing  of  the 
raiders.  Both  boats  were  crowded  with  men.  But  one  line 
shot  had  been  fired,  passing  directly  over  the  bow  of  the 


232        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Dean,  and  there  was  a  scurrying  ashore  when  Provost- 
Marshal  John  Timberlake,  former  Colonel  of  the  Eighty- 
first  Indiana,  appeared  on  the  scene  and,  claiming  to  be 
the  ranking  officer,  said  it  would  not  do  to  destroy  or  sink 
the  property  of  the  United  States  —  the  McComb  was 
a  government  transport  —  and  insisted  on  firing  on  the 
Confederate  cavalry  who  were  on  the  high  ground  at  the 
west  of  the  town.  This  was  done  with  good  effect,  killing 
several  and  wounding  more.  In  this  fire  the  Home  Guards 
joined.  But  soon  two  of  Morgan's  batteries,  one  at  the 
Brandenburg  court  house  and  the  other  toward  the  lower 
end  of  the  town,  and  the  infantry  opened  on  the  six-pounder, 
and  under  cover  of  this  fire  the  boats  crossed  and  landed  a 
large  body  of  men  who  speedily  drove  the  Home  Guards 
from  the  field,  with  the  loss  of  three  killed  and  four  wounded, 
and  their  cannon. 

Upon  landing  on  the  Indiana  side  General  Morgan  said  : 
"That  was  the  tightest  box  I  was  ever  in."  General  Hob- 
son  was  coming  up  in  his  rear,  and  had  the  boats  been 
destroyed,  he  would  probably  have  met  the  fate  he  did 
later  at  Bufhngton's  Ford.  He  might  have  forded  at  the 
bar  above  Brandenburg,  but  he  never  could  have  brought 
his  artillery  across.  He  made  special  inquiry  for  the  Home 
Guards  with  the  Springfield  rifles,  but  was'  never  able  to 
find  them. 

By  retreating  slowly  on  the  Cory  don  Road  and  felling 
trees  to  obstruct  as  much  as  possible  the  progress  of  Mor- 
gan's cavalry,  Colonels  Irwin  and  Timberlake  hoped  that 
aid  from  New  Albany  would  reach  them,  but  it  did  not 
come.  "Not  deterred  by  this  neglect  of  the  New  Albany 
Home  Guards,  or  the  overpowering  force  in  our  front," 
said  one,  "we  gathered  to  the  number  of  three  hundred 
Home  Guards  and  citizens  and  marched  on  Wednesday 
afternoon  four  miles  south  of  Cory  don  on  the  Mauckport 
Road  to  meet  the  invaders."  They  called  themselves  "in- 
fantry  and   cavalry."     Here   the   infantry   remained  until 


MORGAN    S    RAID  233 

10  p.  m.,  when  they  returned  to  town,  and  again  there  was 
a  night  of  turmoil  and  hysterical  women.  The  cavalry 
under  Major  Jacob  Pfrimmer  and  mounted  citizens  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  remained  behind  on  all  the  roads 
leading  to  the  river  to  watch  the  approach  of  the  enemy. 
The  next  morning  Major  Pfrimmer  and  his  men  charged 
a  party  of  Morgan's  scouts  and  captured  twelve  of  them. 

Much  indignation  was  expressed  at  a  party  of  Morgan's 
men  shooting  down  John  Glenn  and  burning  his  house. 
But  the  old  man  was  foolish  enough  or  brave  enough  to 
walk  out  of  his  house  alone  and  fire  into  the  approaching 
Confederates.  The  only  property  burned  was  Lopp's  Mill 
on  Buck  Creek. 

About  11  a.  m.  on  Thursday,  July  9,  the  report  came 
to  town  that  Morgan's  main  force  was  approaching  on  the 
Mauckport  Road,  with  skirmishers  out  on  either  side. 
The  Home  Guards  and  citizens  to  the  number  of  six  hun- 
dred, under  the  command  of  Colonel  Louis  Jordan,  assisted 
by  Colonel  Timberlake  and  Major  Jacob  Pfrimmer,  formed 
what  they  called  a  line  of  battle  on  the  hill  one  mile  south 
of  Cory  don,  reaching  from  Amsterdam  Road  on  the  right 
to  Laconia  Road  on  the  left  or  east,  with  the  Mauckport 
Road  in  the  center.  My  brother,  Major  McGrain,  was  in 
command  of  a  company  armed  with  Henry  rifles  on  the 
extreme  right  of  the  line  on  the  Amsterdam  Road. 

Temporary  breastworks  made  of  fallen  logs  and  fence 
rails,  together  with  the  lay  of  the  ground  and  the  timber 
and  underbrush,  made  it  difficult  for  Morgan  to  make  a  direct 
attack.  But  still  he  came  that  way.  He  approached  on 
the  left  in  small  force,  but  was  repulsed  by  Captain  George 
LaHue's  company;  then  after  he  had  advanced  his  main 
force  up  the  Mauckport  Road,  he  saw  that  a  direct  attack 
would  cost  too  many  lives,  so  he  covered  both  flanks  at  the 
same  time,  "which  made  it  necessary,"  one  of  the  volun- 
teers informed  me,  "for  us  in  the  center  to  fall  back." 
"This,"  he  further  said,  "was  done,  not  with  the  best  of 


234       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

order,  but  with  excellent  speed,  for,  you  know,  our  infantry 
were  mostly  undrilled."  On  the  Amsterdam  Road,  where 
my  brother  commanded  the  "Henry  Rifles"  and  thirty  or 
forty  men  armed  with  ordinary  squirrel  rifles,  he  and  his 
men  claimed  to. have  held  Morgan's  cavalry  in  check  until 
artillery  was  brought  to  bear  on  them  and  they  were  flanked 
out  with  a  dismounted  force. 

The  "infantry"  fell  back  to  the  town,  while  the  "cav- 
alry" made  good  their  escape.  Morgan  then  occupied  the 
hill  and  began  throwing  shells  into  the  center  of  the  street 
in  front  of  the  court  house.  He  also  flanked  the  town  to 
the  east  and  the  west.  Colonel  Jordan,  seeing  that  further 
resistance  would  be  useless  and  would  result  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  town,  hoisted  the  white  flag.  The  Home  Guard 
losses  were  3  killed,  2  wounded,  and  300  prisoners;  the  lat- 
ter, after  several  hours,  were  paroled.  Morgan's  losses  were 
18  killed  and  33  wounded.  General  Morgan  arrived  in 
time  for  a  late  dinner,  and  held  possession  of  the  town 
until  night. 

"Cedar  Glade,"  my  father's  house,  was  about  half  a  mile 
north  of  the  town,  on  the  Salem  Road,  which  was  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  street  into  which  ran  the  Mauckport  Road 
from  the  south,  on  which  Morgan's  column  advanced.  To 
my  father's  house  in  the  forenoon,  as  soon  as  the  firing 
began,  most  of  the  women  of  the  town  betook  themselves 
with  their  children  and  as  many  belongings  as  they  could 
carry.  The  house  had  a  large  cellar,  but  not  large  enough 
for  all  the  women  and  children  who  had  sought  refuge 
there;  they  overflowed  the  house  and  lawn.  Between  this 
house  and  the  town  there  was  a  hill,  so  we  had  no  view  of 
what  was  going  on.  But  soon  after  I  reached  my  father's 
house  we  heard  the  sound  of  artillery.  We  saw  those  of 
the  Home  Guards  who  did  not  remain  in  town  to  surrender, 
run  past  to  the  fields  and  hills  beyond.  Some  of  them 
threw  away  their  guns  as  they  ran.  Dr.  Slemmons  had  a 
fine  Spencer  rifle,  which  he  threw  into  a  meadow  opposite 


MORGAN    S    RAID  235 

us  as  he  ran  past;  the  next  morning  he  walked  out  and 
picked  it  up. 

Some  of  the  cannon  balls  tore  through  the  trees  near 
my  father's  house  after  passing  over  the  town,  as  they  were 
fired  from  an  elevation  to  the  south  of  the  town.  At  this 
many  of  the  women  gave  way  to  shrieks,  and  the  larger 
they  were,  the  more  alarmed  they  were.  But  the  irre- 
pressible small  boy  threw  up  his  hat  in  glee  and  yelled, 
"The  Rebels  are  coming,  the  Rebels  are  coming  to  town." 

The  women  had  left  their  houses  unprotected,  and  some 
of  them,  in  their  fright,  brought  more  things  away  than  they 
could  carry  back  after  the  troops  had  passed.  While  they 
were  gone  Morgan's  men  went  through  some  of  the  unpro- 
tected houses,  ransacking  bureaus  and  closets,  and  taking 
what  they  could  carry.  Where  the  families  remained  at 
home  the  houses  were  not  sacked;  but  as  our  men  did  in 
the  South,  Confederate  officers  and  men  billeted  themselves 
on  the  households  for  the  six  or  eight  hours  they  remained. 
They  offered  to  pay,  but  only  in  Confederate  money. 

Mr.  T.  C.  Slaughter,  my  husband's  old  law  partner, 
was  at  Paoli  when  Morgan  crossed  at  Brandenburg  on 
Wednesday  morning.  That  afternoon  he  drove  over  to 
Orleans  and  took  the  Monon  Railroad  into  New  Albany. 
He  got  out  his  squirrel  rifle,  joined  the  "Henry  Rifles"  under 
Major  McGrain,  and  fired  sixteen  rounds  before  they  re- 
treated into  town,  where  he  was  captured.  During  his 
captivity  Captain  Slaughter  of  General  Morgan's  artillery 
hunted  him  up  and  claimed  kinship,  which  Mr.  Slaughter 
said,  though  distant,  existed.  This  incident  of  the  Ken- 
tucky captain's  calling  on  Mr.  Slaughter  gave  rise  to  the 
report  that  Slaughter  suffered  less  loss  than  any  of  the 
other  large  property  owners  of  the  town,  and  the  fact  is, 
his  losses  were  very  slight.  Blood  is  thicker  than  water, 
the  gossips  said. 

The  sword  which  the  officers  and  men  of  the  Fifty-third 
Indiana  had  presented  to  my  husband  and  which  he  had 


236        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

sent  home,  I  concealed  in  a  stovepipe  before  I  started  to 
my  father's  house,  shortly  before  noon.  Toward  evening 
the  excitement  at  "Cedar  Glade"  subsided  and  I  concluded 
to  return  to  my  home  to  look  after  it,  and  with  a  view  to 
remaining  there  during  the  night,  as  I  felt  there  would  be 
no  danger.  Moreover,  I  thought  of  the  action  of  our 
soldiers  at  Collierville  in  using  the  fence  paling  for  kindling 
for  their  bivouac  fires,  and  feared  that  if  Morgan's  com- 
mand remained  that  night  in  Corydon  and  I  was  not  there 
to  protect  them,  our  fences  might  be  appropriated  for  a  like 
purpose. 

At  the  edge  of  the  town,  but  two  or  three  blocks  from 
my  home,  I  met  Morgan's  advance  guard.  Before  the 
entire  body  had  passed,  two  young  officers  fell  out  of  line 
and  addressed  me  —  a  Captain  Simmons  and  Lieutenant 
Brown,  who  were  brothers  of  schoolmates  of  my  sister  Lyde 
and  myself  at  Beardstown,  Kentucky.  They  asked  me 
where  my  husband  was,  and  I  told  them,  ' '  In  the  Yankee 
army,  fighting  you  fellows."  I  offered  them  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  house  if  they  would  remain  over  night,  for  I 
knew  that  with  them  as  my  guests  I  and  my  fence  would 
be  safe.  They  thanked  me  and  said,  "We  most  certainly 
would  be  glad  to  accept,  but  you  don't  seem  to  perceive 
we  are  somewhat  in  a  hurry."  The  rear  of  their  column 
had  disappeared  over  the  hill.  They  bade  me  good-bye 
and  went  on  at  a  gallop.  A  son  of  Captain  Simmons  after- 
wards came  to  Chicago,  and  my  husband  secured  him  a 
situation.  I  found  everything  intact  at  my  house,  but 
instead  of  staying  there  that  night,  I  yielded  to  the  en- 
treaties of  the  Jordans  and  passed  the  night  with  them. 
Troops  and  stragglers  were  passing  all  night. 

General  Morgan  improvised  the  Corydon  Presbyterian 
Church  into  a  hospital  for  his  wounded.  Those  who  were 
strong  enough  to  be  moved  were  sent  in  a  few  days  to  New 
Albany,  but  those  who  were  seriously  wounded  were  com- 
pelled to  remain  in  the  church.     My  sister,  Jane  Anna,  and 


MORGAN    S     RAID  237 

I  nursed  one,  Albert  Womack,  a  mere  boy,  only  seven- 
teen, small  and  delicate  for  his  years.  He  was  desperately 
wounded  and  died  in  a  few  days.  His  home  was  in  Mc- 
Minnville,  Tennessee.  In  his  delirium  the  boy  revealed 
the  family  secrets  and  the  refinement  of  his  Tennessee 
home.  When  we  first  went  to  him  he  had  on  a  dirty 
flannel  shirt  and  asked  to  have  a  white  one.  We  washed 
him  and  put  on  him  one  of  my  husband's  best  white  shirts. 
From  the  fact  that  my  father  was  a  Secessionist,  the  action 
of  my  sister  and  myself  in  nursing  this  boy  created  a  good 
deal  of  talk,  and  still  more  when  he  was  buried  in  the  Cory- 
don  Cemetery  in  a  shirt  on  which  appeared  the  name  of 
my  husband,  who  had  a  short  time  before  been  promoted 
to  be  a  brigadier-general  for  services  at  Vicksburg. 

Benjamin  Q.  A.  Gresham,  my  husband's  eldest  brother, 
then  a  major  in  the  Third  Indiana  Cavalry,  was  home 
on  furlough  recovering  from  a  wound.  In  uniform  he  was 
the  handsomest  officer  I  saw  during  the  war,  but  without 
any  trace  of  that  consciousness  that  too  often  mars  manly 
beauty.  In  the  disguise  of  a  farmer  he  entered  Morgan's 
lines  and  spent  the  afternoon  with  him  and  the  troops  in 
Corydon.  Later  in  the  day,  when  he  wished  to  leave  town, 
in  order  to  report  to  the  authorities  at  Indianapolis  what 
he  had  seen  and  what  he  understood  to  be  Morgan's  plan, 
he  applied  to  Morgan  for  a  pass  to  permit  him  to  go  through 
the  Confederate  lines.  He  told  Morgan  he  lived  ten  miles 
east  on  the  New  Albany  plank  road,  which  for  several  miles 
was  in  possession  of  Morgan's  men,  and  said,  "I  have  a 
very  sick  boy  at  home  and  came  here  for  medicine  for  him 
—  nux  vomica."  After  some  conversation  about  the  boy, 
Morgan  asked  his  age,  and  whether  there  was  a  doctor  at 
Lanesville.  "Morgan  looked  hard  at  me,  saying,  'I 
think  it  is  a  damn  strange  thing  for  you  to  ride  ten  miles 
for  a  little  bottle  of  medicine  like  that,  but  if  your  boy  is 
sick,  as  you  say,  I  guess  I  will  have  to  pass  you  through,'" 
and  he  did.     Ben  laughed  and  added,  "Morgan  is  a  good 

16 


238        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

fellow.  I  think  he  suspected  me  of  being  a  spy,  but  I  knew 
he  had  no  time  then  to  stop  and  shoot  or  hang  me." 
Instead  of  stopping  at  Lanesville,  Ben  rode  through  to 
New  Albany,  and  telegraphed  Governor  Morton  his  im- 
pressions of  Morgan  and  his  force. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
NATCHEZ   IN    1863 


COLONIAL      HOMES     OF     NATCHEZ ROSALIE,         GRANTS 

HEADQUARTERS GRESHAM  IN  COMMAND  OF  NATCHEZ COT- 
TON  A    CAUSE    OF   DOWNFALL    OF   CONFEDERACY EFFECT   OF 

ENLISTMENT    OF    NEGROES GRESHAM    ENFORCES    LAW    AND 

ORDER PRESERVES      RIGHTS      OF     NONCOMBATANTS PROC- 
LAMATION   OF    AMNESTY    AND    PARDON MORTALITY     AMONG 

CONTRABANDS      WHO       FLOCKED      TO      THE      TOWNS RECON- 
STRUCTION   BEGUN. 

TN  the  latter  part  of  August,  1863,  I  started  for  Vicks- 
■**  burg  to  visit  "My  Gineral."  There  was  still  plenty 
of  secessionist  sentiment  in  my  family.  My  younger  sister 
Zetta,  who  was  devoted  to  my  husband,  dubbed  him  "My 
Gineral."  The  river  was  low  and  it  was  a  journey  by 
light  draft  boat  to  Memphis,  where  we  transferred  to  another 
for  Vicksburg.  We  were  a  week  on  the  way,  and  I  became 
sick  from  drinking  the  river  water.  Before  reaching  Mem- 
phis there  was  much  talk  on  the  boat  that  below  Memphis 
boats  were  set  on  fire  by  emissaries  of  the  Confederacy  or 
fired  on  from  the  bank,  but  I  went  through  without  incident. 
On  the  arrival  of  the  boat  at  Vicksburg  I  was  met  by 
several  officers  whom  I  had  known  at  Collier ville.1  They 
brought  me  word  that  my  husband  was  at  Natchez  and 
for  me  to  go  on  to  that  point.  As  it  would  take  most  of 
the  day  and  part  of  the  night  for  the  boat  to  unload  the 
Vicksburg  cargo,  I  accepted  their  invitation  to  drive  about 
the  town  and  out  to  the  fortifications  and  trenches.  It 
was  early  September,  sixty  days  after  the  surrender,  and 
some  of  the  streets  were  still  barricaded.  In  those  that 
were  open  there  were  hats,  rubbish,  old  clothes,  and  parts 

iSee  page  215. 

239 


240        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  wagons  and  caissons.  The  caves  in  the  chalk-like  clay 
hills,  in  which  the  Vicksburg  people  lived  during  the  siege, 
were  pointed  out.  Then  we  drove  out  to  the  line  of  forts 
and  the  trenches  of  the  besieged,  and  the  line  of  General 
Grant's  army  with  its  trenches  and  parallels  as  it  was 
posted  when  General  Pemberton  surrendered.  To  the 
southeast  of  the  city  was  the  position  of  my  husband's 
regiment,  .now  marked  by  a  tablet. 

Beyond  to  the  east  was  indicated  the  line  of  that  part 
of  General  Grant's  army  which  had  formed  "a  face  front 
to  the  rear,  to  meet  the  threatened  approach  of  Joe  John- 
ston's army."  Even  a  woman,  on  the  ground  with  the 
panorama  before  her,  could  appreciate  the  genius  that 
conceived  the  plan,  and  the  force  and  energy  that  exe- 
cuted it. 

Early  next  morning  we  were  at  Natchez.  My  husband 
was  on  the  boat,  up  in  the  cabin,  and  greeting  me  before 
I  was  ready  to  leave.  I  was  struck  with  his  lean  appear- 
ance. He  had  not  yet  recovered  from  the  exposure  in  the 
trenches  at  Vicksburg.  He  admitted  then,  what  he  had 
not  written  about  himself  but  about  others,  that  the  ex- 
posure in  the  trenches  had  brought  on  indigestion  and 
malaria.  "Most  of  the  clothes  we  wore  during  the  siege 
we  burned,"  he  said. 

When  I  first  saw  it,  Natchez  was  a  beautiful  place,  and 
still  is,  although  then  showing  traces  of  the  ravages  of  the 
war.  There  was  "Natchez  on  the  Bluff"  and  "Natchez 
under  the  Hill"  at  the  landing.  At  the  time  of  my  first 
visit,  "Natchez  under  the  Hill"  was  a  famous  place  with 
its  wharf,  boats,  warehouses,  stores  and  hotels,  and  haunts 
of  vice.  Up  an  inclined  cut,  in  the  side  of  the  chalky  bluff 
which  rises  170  feet  above  the  river,  is  the  road  or  street 
leading  to  Natchez  proper.  At  the  top  is  a  park  command- 
ing a  view  —  none  finer  on  the  Mississippi  —  down  the  river 
for  miles,  and  up  the  river  a  short  distance  to  where  it  dis- 
appears behind  a  bend  to  the  west  twenty  miles  around, 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  241 

only  to  appear  again  across  a  narrow  neck,  about  two  and 
one-half  miles  to  the  north.  Westward  across  the  river 
for  many  miles  the  fertile  bottom  fields  of  Louisiana  are 
in  view.  Facing  the  park  were  beautiful  residences  and 
farther  back  was  the  business  part  of  the  city. 

July  13,  1863,  General  Grant  went  to  Natchez  and  made 
his  headquarters  in  " Rosalie,"  the  handsomest  of  the  resi- 
dences on  the  park  I  have  just  described.  "Rosalie"  was 
built  in  1823  and  takes  its  name  from  the  French  fort  of 
that  name  that  was  destroyed  by  the  Natchez  Indians  in 
1729,  when  all  the  French  settlers  were  massacred.  Several 
hundred  feet  to  the  south  of  the  mansion,  on  what  was 
then  part  of  its  lawn,  were  the  remains  of  the  old  fort, 
right  on  the  crest  of  the  bluff. 

General  Grant  remained  but  a  few  days  at  Natchez. 
He  left  Brigadier-General  M.  M.  Crocker,  commanding  the 
Fourth  Division  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  in  com- 
mand of  the  District  of  Natchez,  which  included  as  much 
of  the  territory  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  adjacent  to 
the  river  as  he  could  cover. 

August  26,  1863,  my  husband  reported  to  General 
Crocker  and  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Third 
Brigade,  Fourth  Division,  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  with 
headquarters  at  "Rosalie."  Included  in  his  command  was 
the  city  of  Natchez,  so  that  from  the  first  he  was  brought 
into  close  contact  with  its  people. 

Up  the  incline  and  through  the  park  to  "Rosalie"  I 
was  conducted.  Its  lawns  to  the  rear,  the  site  of  the  old 
fort,  and  beyond,  were  covered  with  tents.  A  sumptuous 
breakfast  awaited  me. 

On  the  boats  from  Cairo  to  Natchez  there  had  been  a 
handsome  young  officer  with  red  hair  who  attracted  much 
attention  by  the  way  he  played  poker  and  drank  whiskey. 
When  he  was  presented  to  me  at  breakfast  as  Captain 
Norton  of  the  Twelfth  Wisconsin  and  a  member  of  my 
husband's  staff,  I  recognized  him  at  once  and  caused  some 


242       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

amusement  by  relating  the  circumstances  under  which  I 
had  seen  him  on  the  boat.  Although  my  husband  was 
always  temperate  himself,  a  fact  to  which  the  doctors  after- 
wards attributed  their  ability  to  save  his  leg  and  his  life, 
the  use  of  wine  and  whiskey — almost  universal  in  the  army 
— was  no  bar  to  my  husband's  favor;  certainly  not  so  long 
as  those  who  drank  it  did  not  incapacitate  themselves  for 
duty.     At  "Rosalie"  I  learned  the  game  of  poker. 

One  of  the  members  of  my  husband's  staff  was  Captain 
George  S.  Babbitt  of  the  Twenty- third  Indiana.  The 
entire  antithesis  of  Daniel  G.  Griffin  of  the  Thirty-eighth 
Indiana,  whom  my  husband  described  as  the  most  perfect 
man  he  had  ever  met,  Babbitt  was  Griffin's  most  intimate 
friend.  They  occupied  bachelor  quarters  in  New  Albany. 
How  two  men  so  different  could  be  such  friends  was  one 
of  the  mysteries.  Babbitt,  it  was  said,  was  like  John  A. 
Rawlins,  proficient  in  the  language  that  made  the  army  in 
Flanders  famous.  He  was  a  native  of  Michigan  and  had 
come  to  New  Albany  as  a  civil  engineer  in  the  employ  of 
the  Louisville,  New  Albany  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company, 
had  graduated  from  the  "Anderson  Rifles"  as  an  officer  into 
the  Twenty-third  Indiana  Volunteers  when  it  was  organized 
in  New  Albany  in  June,  July,  and  August,  1861.  Daniel  G. 
Griffin  was  captain  of  the  "Anderson  Rifles"  until  he  went 
into  the  Thirty-eighth.  William  L.  Sanderson  had  been 
mayor  of  New  Albany,  was  one  of  its  leading  and  most 
respected  citizens,  and  had  passed  middle  life  when  he  was 
commissioned  Colonel  of  the  Twenty-third.  Very  dignified, 
he  had  not  much  patience  with  the  young  fellows,  among 
whom  Babbitt  was  the  leader,  who  after  marching  all  day 
would  play  cards  and  drink  whiskey  a  good  part  of  the  night. 
Babbitt  was  but  a  little  over  twenty-five  and  was  one  of 
the  brightest  and  ablest  men  of  his  years  I  ever  met.  His 
energy  and  his  brains  were  what  my  husband  liked  in  him. 
Moreover,  his  duties  as  chief  executive  officer  of  the  man 
who  had  almost  unlimited  power  in  the  district,  left  him 


NATCHEZ    IN    1863  243 

but  little  time  for  play.  With  the  soldiers,  the  planters  of 
Natchez,  and  the  ex-Confederates  whose  wounds  had  dis- 
abled them  for  further  service,  Babbitt  was  most  popular. 
There  was  much  cheer,  many  cigars  and  toddies  at  these 
headquarters,  and  when  it  came  to  hospitality,  no  South- 
ern man  could  be  more  cordial  than  my  husband.  Indeed, 
he  was  always  rated  as  one  of  them.  And  in  his  absence 
Babbitt  would  do  the  honors.  It  was  Babbitt's  great 
pleasure  to  crowd  the  colonel  of  a  regiment  along,  and  his 
special  delight  to  prod  up  "Coon  Sanderson,"  as  he  always 
spoke  of  Colonel  Sanderson.  Most  considerate  of  the  sensi- 
bilities of  women,  he  never  made  war  on  them.  Before 
the  close  of  the  great  conflict  which  Babbitt  did  not  long  * 
survive,  for  he  burnt  the  candle  at  both  ends,  he  was 
made  a  colonel,  as  were  also  Captain  Norton  of  the  Twelfth 
Wisconsin  and  A.  V.  Duncan,  another  bright  man.  These 
three  made  up  my  husband's  staff.  Captain  Cadle  of  an 
Iowa  regiment,  a  handsome  young  officer,  afterwards  a 
colonel,  was  Crocker's  adjutant-general.  Babbitt,  Norton, 
and  Cadle  were  popular  with  the  young  ladies  of  Natchez, 
and  when  it  came  to  a  flirtation  there  was  neither  blue  nor 
gray. 

A.  L.  Wilson,  the  owner  of  "Rosalie,"  a  man  of  affairs 
and  affluence,  before  the  coming  of  the  Yankees  had  taken 
his  slaves  and  gone  to  Texas  in  the  hope  of  saving  them. 
He  believed,  as  did  others,  that  he  might  escape  the  pains 
and  penalties  of  the  Confiscation  Act  and  the  effects  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation. 

Mrs.  Wilson  and  her  daughter,  an  only  child,  a  demure 
miss  whom  our  officers  much  respected,  occupied  all  the 
upper  part  of  the  house  except  one  of  the  front  rooms, 
which  was  mine.  Miss  Wilson,  then  just  out  of  school,  was 
devoted  to  a  Captain  S.  E.  Rumble  who  was  in  the  Con- 
federate army.  After  the  war  he  and  Miss  Wilson  were 
married,  and  since  then  I  have  enjoyed  their  hospitality 
and   that   of   their    charming    family   at    "Rosalie."     All 


244         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  lower  floor  except  the  dining  room  of  General  Grant 
was  used  for  the  executive  offices.  The  dining  room  my 
husband  and  his  staff  used  as  their  mess  room.  Mrs. 
Wilson  and  her  daughter  used  one  of  the  upper  rooms  as 
their  dining  room;  their  food  was  largely  supplied  by  our 
mess. 

Contrary  to  the  old  adage  that  two  women  cannot  live 
in  the  same  house  and  be  friends,  Mrs.  Wilson  and  I  were 
most  congenial.  I  never  let  her  forget  that  I  recognized 
that  it  was  her  house.  The  exigencies  of  the  war  did  not 
alter  that  fact.  It  always  seemed  hard  to  me  to  make  a 
private  residence  army  headquarters  or  the  lodging  place 
for  officers.  However,  in  the  latter  instance  it  was  a  pro- 
tection when  the  Union  officer  was  the  right  kind  of  man. 
Though  Secessionist  to  the  core,  on  one  occasion  Mrs. 
Wilson  gave  way  to  her  feelings :  "I  would  like  to  stand  by 
and  see  the  first  man  who  uttered  the  word  secession  have 
his  tongue  pulled  out.  Before  the  war,"  she  added,  "the 
world  was  beautiful  to  us."  But  she  was  always  my  hus- 
band's friend,  and  after  he  moved  his  headquarters  to  the 
business  part  of  the  city  he  frequently  called  on  her,  when 
she  would  always  insist  on  his  remaining  for  the  night  and 
occupying  the  room  which  she  always  kept  for  him. 

Even  the  Natchez  Indians,  from  whom  the  place  de- 
rived its  name,  were  far  in  advance  of  most  of  our  aborig- 
ines in  civilization.     The  place  seemed  to  breathe  culture. 

In  ante-bellum  days  the  Mississippi,  except  the  high- 
ways leading  to  the  east,  was  the  only  artery  of  commerce 
and,  as  presaging  what  may  come  again,  ocean  steamers 
in  those  days  came  to  the  levee  and  cotton  was  shipped 
direct  to  Liverpool.  When  the  war  broke  out  there  were 
no  less  than  six  millionaires  living  in  Natchez  and  its  en- 
virons in  Adams  County.  Their  plantations  were  large- 
ly in  Concordia  and  Tensas  parishes  across  the  river  in 
Louisiana.  Hospitable  by  nature,  these  men  were  almost 
universally  cordial  to  my  husband. 


NATCHEZ    IN    1863  245 

The  planters  dwelt  in  mansions  built  on  the  most  beau- 
tiful lines  of  architecture,  with  broad  verandas  or  galleries 
supported  by  noble  columns.  The  best  lines  of  all  the 
Colonial  homes  I  have  ever  seen  in  America  are  those  of 
"Stanton  Hall,"  finished  by  Frederick  Stanton,  in  1858. 
Most  of  these  residences  were  built  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  In  all  there  were  forty  of  these  homes  in 
Adams  County.  "Concord/'  the  residence  of  the  Minors 
when  I  was  there,  was  built  by  one  of  the  Spanish  governors 
in  1784,  and  it  would  be  a  splendid  building  yet  but  for  the 
ravages  of  fire.  "Laurel  Hill"  of  the  Spanish  days  is  still 
standing.  In  every  way  in  his  power  my  husband  aided 
Mrs.  Minor.  She  was  a  widow  with  a  son  in  the  Con- 
federate army.  After  my  husband  was  wounded,  at  Mrs. 
Minor's  instance  he  exerted  himself  to  get  her  son  released 
from  captivity  because  of  his  youth  and  ill  health.  Miss 
Kate  Minor,  who  during  the  World's  Fair,  as  one  of  the 
"Lady  Managers"  from  Louisiana,  won  such  golden  opin- 
ions from  all,  was  then  a  mere  infant. 

On  a  commanding  height  overlooking  the  Mississippi, 
was  the  "Briars,"  where  Jefferson  Davis  wooed  and  won  his 
second  wife,  Miss  Varina  Howell.  We  visited  and  dined 
at  "Richmond,"  an  old  mansion  a  short  distance  down 
the  river  road.  Its  construction  had  been  begun  in  1784. 
Levin  R.  Marshall,  the  owner  of  "Richmond,"  a  neutral, 
as  he  is  spoken  of  to-day  by  people  in  Natchez,-  was  rated 
by  us  as  a  Union  man,  as  is  attested  by  a  letter  of  December 
20,  1863,  to  my  husband  from  Mrs.  Marshall,  in  which  she 
begs  on  behalf  of  herself  and  others,  "that  the  troops  will 
not  evacuate  Vidalia,  for  if  they  leave  the  other  side  of  the 
river  our  property  will  almost  certainly  be  destroyed;  our 
corn,  of  which  we  have  plenty,  and  our  mills  and  gins 
burned,  and  then  our  negroes  must  starve."  The  troops 
stayed,  and  by  every  act  in  his  power  my  husband  strove 
to  keep  the  negroes  on  the  plantations.  Mr.  Marshall's 
two  sons  and  his  son-in-law  were  in  the  Confederate  army. 


246         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

The  unmarried  daughter,  Mary,  and  the  married  one,  the 
wife  of  Captain  Ogden  of  General  Loring's  staff,  were 
accomplished  women,  and  very  popular  with  our  young 
officers. 

Many  of  the  Southern  women  in  their  necessity,  after 
the  blockade,  made  their  own  clothes,  hats,  and  bonnets. 
They  braided  hats  out  of  straw  and  did  some  marvelous 
needle  work.  Miss  Marshall  started  to  braid  a  hat  for 
General  Grant,  but  as  he  left  before  it  was  finished,  she 
gave  it  to  General  Gresham.  It  was  of  such  exquisite 
workmanship  that  I  thought  it  should  not  be  worn,  but 
preserved  to  show  subsequently  the  kind  and  character 
of  the  work  of  the  Southern  women  during  the  Rebellion. 
In  1903  I  gave  it  to  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  to  be 
preserved  with  some  of  the  war  mementoes  of  General 
Grant  and  my  husband,  with  an  account  of  how  it  came  to 
me  and  the  name  of  the  maker. 

Another  Union  family  at  Natchez  were  the  Nutts. 
Mr.  Haller  Nutt  was  a  millionaire  when  the  war  began. 
He  owned  the  plantation  at  Hard  Times  Landing  in  Tensas 
Parish  on  the  Louisiana  side  below  Vicksburg.  It  was  to 
Hard  Times  that  General  Grant  marched  his  army  around 
Vicksburg  and  landed  his  boats  after  they  ran  the  batteries. 
Instead  of  burning  his  corn  and  killing  and  driving  off  his 
hogs  as  others  did,  he  left  them  to  subsist  General  Grant's 
army.  A  Virginian  by  birth,  he  did  not  survive  the  war, 
but  his  estate  was  compensated  for  what  our  army  took, 
but  not  for  the  large  number  of  negroes  whose  freedom 
was  contemporaneous  with  the  advent  of  the  United  States 
forces.  "Longwood,"  the  Nutt  home,  was  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  out  of  Natchez  to  the  southeast  on  the  Wood- 
ville  Road.  When  the  war  began,  it  was  in  the  process  of 
being  built  anew.  The  blockade  stopped  its  construction 
as  the  roof  and  first  story  were  completed.  The  interior 
woodwork  and  furnishings,  then  at  sea,  never  reached 
Natchez.     This  first  story  and  the  house  for  the  servants, 


NATCHEZ    IN    1863  247 

a  good  dwelling  for  any  one,  formed  the  Nutt  abode 
in  1863.  Many  times  we  dined  there.  "Longwood's" 
eighty  acres,  with  sixty  servants,  were  well  cared  for.  In 
the  garden  were  five  hundred  varieties  of  roses.  Miss 
Carrie  Nutt  was  a  charming  young  woman  and  deservedly 
popular  with  all,  especially  our  young  officers.  It  was  at 
"Longwood"  that  Sargent  S.  Prentiss  married  Mrs.  Will- 
iams and  it  was  there  he  died. 

Just  beyond,  on  the  Woodville  Road,  is  Prentiss's  grave 
and  that  of  Winthrop  Sargent,  one  of  Washington's  soldiers, 
the  first  secretary  of  the  Northwest  Territory  by  Presi- 
dent Washington's  appointment,  and  the  first  territorial 
governor  of  Mississippi,  appointed  by  President  Adams  and 
removed  by  President  Jefferson.  Theodore  Roosevelt  is 
in  error,  in  "The  Winning  of  the  West,"  in  stating  that 
Sargent  left  Mississippi  after  being  removed  from  office. 
Soon  after  reaching  Natchez  Mr.  Sargent  wooed  and  won 
a  handsome  young  widow,  Mrs.  Williams,  who  had  a  large 
landed  estate.  On  this  they  erected  the  typical  mansion 
of  Colonial  days,  which  they  called  "Gloster,"  and  which 
stands  to-day  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  Winthrop 
Sargent's  grave.  His  grandson,  also  Winthrop  Sargent, 
unlike  many  New  England  men  who  settled  in  the  South, 
"did  not  take  up,"  as  Mr.  Lincoln  put  it,  "with  the  sophism 
of  secession."  "Many  of  our  most  violent  and  unreasoning 
Secessionists  are  men  of  New  England  origin,"  said  one  of 
our  dinner  guests  on  one  occasion  to  my  husband.  His 
answer  was,  "They  may  well  be,  for  they  invented  it." 
Sargent  adhered  to  his  grandfather's  Federalism.  He  was 
one  of  my  husband's  intimate  friends  while  I  was  in  Natchez. 
Many  were  the  discussions  I  heard  between  the  two  about 
the  Northwest  Territory,  St.  Clair,  Washington,  Adams, 
and  Jefferson.  After  my  husband  was  wounded,  Winthrop 
Sargent  was  one  of  his  regular  correspondents. 

To  the  north  and  east  of  "Longwood"  and  "Gloster" 
on   the   Liberty   Road   was    "Elmscourt,"    the  handsome 


248        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

home  of  A.  S.  Merrill,  who  was  considered  a  Union  man. 
At  any  rate,  some  of  his  property  was  destroyed  by  Con- 
federates and  on  one  occasion  a  detail  was  sent  by  the 
Confederate  General  Wirt  Adams  to  burn  his  residence, 
but  they  were  driven  off.  The  Merrills  were  an  interest- 
ing and  accomplished  family.  After  the  war,  General 
Grant  sent  Mr.  Merrill  to  Brussels  as  our  minister.  Past 
"Monmouth,"  the  home  of  General  J.  M.  Quitman,  a 
native  of  New  York  but  one  of  the  most  extreme  of  the 
Secessionists,  was  "Melrose,"  the  home  of  Judge  McMur- 
ran,  the  former  partner  of  General  Quitman.  Judge 
McMurran  had  gained  fame  at  the  bar  and  with  him  and 
Mrs.  McMurran  we  had  most  cordial  relations.  Judge 
McMurran  was  one  of  the  Mississippi  delegates  to  the 
convention  of  1850  that  met  at  Nashville  with  a  view  to 
preventing  the  admission  of  California.  He  was  a  broad- 
minded,  conservative,  cultured  man. 

Another  accomplished  family  was  that  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Davis.  He  lived  just  at  the  edge  of  town  in  "Sunnyside," 
his  brother  Alfred  Vidal  Davis  near  by  in  "Dunleith."  As 
I  remember  it  Samuel  Davis's  family  consisted  of  himself, 
Mrs.  Davis  and  a  daughter.  He  was  frank  in  his  secession- 
ist views."  He  was  wealthy  and  his  wine  cellar  was  still 
well  stocked  with  wine  that  had  been  imported  before  the 
war.  He  gave  most  elegant  and  sumptuous  dinners. 
Another  warm  friend  my  husband  made  at  Natchez  was 
Dr.  William  Byrd  Page,  a  Virginian  by  birth,  who  was  en- 
joying a  large  and  lucrative  practice  in  Philadelphia  when 
Mississippi  seceded.  His  wife,  who  was  a  Miss  Davis,  a 
sister  of  A.  V.  and  Samuel  Davis,  had  large  plantations  in 
Louisiana  and  Mississippi.  When  the  war  began,  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Page  moved  to  Natchez  to  look  after  Mrs.  Davis's 
property.  Their  object  was  to  avoid  the  pains  and  penal- 
ties of  the  confiscation  acts  of  the  Confederate  government. 
They  succeeded,  as  did  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Carter  who  lived  in 
Philadelphia  before  the  war,  but  were  sojourning  in  Natchez 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  249 

when  I  was  there.  After  the  war  they  returned  to  Phila- 
delphia. Mrs.  Carter  also  owned  a  large  plantation  in 
Concordia  Parish,  Louisiana.  My  husband,  whose  desire 
it  was  to  get  them  back  to  the  old  relation,  cared  not 
whether  it  was  the  stress  of  circumstances  or  a  prededi- 
cation  that  caused  them  to  side  with  the  Confederacy. 
When  it  came  to  property  interests,  the  noncombatants, 
whether  "Yank  or  Reb,"  can  not  now  be  censured  for 
having  played  both  ends.  The  Southern  judges  were 
better  diplomats  right  in  the  midst  of  the  war  than  the 
men  in  military  or  executive  positions.  Men  of  the  class 
of  Drs.  Page  and  Carter,  the  Confederate  State  Courts 
held,  were  not  liable  to  the  drafts  but  might  be  expelled.1 
Perhaps  the  reader  and  the  historians,  in  view  of  some  of 
the  facts  and  incidents  herein  set  forth,  can  understand 
how  Gresham  wanted  to  end  the  war  at  Appomattox. 

" Clifton,"  the  complement  of  "Rosalie"  and  built  the 
same  year,  overlooked  the  river  to  the  north  of  the  park 
from  the  highest  ground  in  Natchez.  It  was  the  home  of 
Frank  Surget  and  was  then  occupied  by  the  Union  forces. 
Subsequently  —  an  unnecessary,  if  not  a  wanton  act  —  it 
was  demolished  and  a  fort  constructed  on  its  site.  We 
dined  with  Mr.  Surget.  He  was  not  living  in  "Clifton" 
then,  but  in  a  house  in  the  center  of  the  city. 

1  News  item  from  one  of  the  Natchez  papers  of  1864,  furnished  by  Capt.  Allen  T. 
Bowie,  C  S.  A.: 

"A  few  days  since,  a  squad  of  Rebels  came  to  our  lines  under  Flag  of  Truce  having  in 
custody  Mr.  J.  Lengsfield  with  his  wife  and  six  children,  who  had  been,  as  it  appears  after  the 
usual  routine  of  imprisonment  and  confiscation  of  goods,  banished  'not  to  return  to  the  Con- 
federate States  during  the  war.' 

"The  family  were  properly  cared  for  and  General  Brayman,  in  pursuance  of  instructions 
concerning  such  cases,  selected  Judge  S.  S.  Boyd  and  family  to  be  sent  to  Brookhaven  in  return 
After  all  preparations  were  made  for  the  departure  the  friends  of  Judge  Boyd  proposed  to  pay 
$5,000  for  the  benefit  and  support  of  refugees  and  citizens  who,  like  Mr.  Lengsfield,  may  be 
plundered  and  banished  from  Rebel  neighborhoods  for  being  loyal  to  the  United  States  flag 
and  government.  General  Brayman  made  the  order  accordingly.  The  result  is,  Judge  Boyd 
remains  at  home,  and  the  new  Mayor  begins  his  poor-fund  for  the  winter  with  $5,000  in  the 
city  treasury." 

The  claim  of  Judge  Boyd's  relatives  and  friends  is  that  General  Brayman  appropriated 
the  $5,000  to  his  own  use.  James  Surget  states  that  he  paid  the  money  in  currency  to  Gen- 
eral Brayman,  and  that  it  never  went  into  the  poor-fund. 

See  page  262. 


250       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

Another  place  that  we  visited  was  "Brown's  Gardens," 
under  the  hill,  but  up  the  river  about  opposite  "Clifton." 
The  gardens  of  roses  were  even  then  immense,  but  the 
encroachment  of  the  Mississippi  had  cut  them  down  greatly. 
This  place  is  now  the  home  of  Mr.  R.  F.  Learned,  who  was 
in  the  Confederate  army.  After  the  war  he  married  Miss 
Brown,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  both  lived  long  and 
prospered.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Page  made  up  another  charming 
and  interesting  family,  as  I  have  already  stated. 

For  two  months  I  lived  at  "Rosalie."  Almost  always 
at  dinner  in  the  middle  of  the  day  there  was  some  officer 
or  citizen  as  a  guest.  At  the  morning  meal  the  talk  was 
unguarded.  Often  my  husband  would  caution  Babbitt  and 
Norton  that  they  would  be  surprised  and  captured  some 
evening  when  calling  on  the  ladies.  "Shop"  was  talked 
—  that  is,  military  movements.  But  what  interested  me 
most  was  to  hear  my  husband  discuss  the  political,  social, 
and  economical  changes  the  abolition  of  slavery  would 
make.  Subsequent  events  proved  that  he  understood  the 
situation.  He  could  expound  a  legal  proposition  with  a 
clearness  that  was  interesting  to  all.  The  Emancipation 
Proclamation  was  a  war  measure;  it  freed  only  certain 
individuals;  it  did  not  change  the  fundamental  law  which 
recognized  the  institution  of  slavery.  "We  will  have  a 
Thirteenth  Amendment  but  it  will  not  be  the  kind  Mr. 
Lincoln  offered  the  slaveholder  in  1861 — it  will  sweep  the 
institution  from  our  political  and  economical  system.  I 
hope  the  Southern  leaders  will  end  the  war  and  let  us  pay 
their  people  something  for  their  niggers  —  otherwise  they 
will  get  nothing."  Sure  of  the  end  and  conscious  of  his 
own  power  and  that  of  the  government  behind  him,  Mr. 
Gresham's  purpose  was  always  to  make  it  easy  to  get  back 
to  the  old  relations. 

At  that  table  I  learned  that  there  was  a  most  extensive 
and  efficient  secret  service.  It  covered  the  military  and 
political  field  completely.     Some  of  the  women  —  ladies  who 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  251 

were  receiving  courtesies  and  rations  at  our  hands — were 
secretly  aiding  the  enemy.  They  never  knew  that  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  had  an  exact  line  on  them.  He  regarded  them 
as  foolish,  misguided  women. 

From  what  I  actually  saw,  and  from  letters  and  per- 
sonal recollections  of  the  time,  General  Gresham  was  with 
but  few  exceptions  on  good  terms  with  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  Natchez.  It  was  his  opportunity  to  show  his 
love  for  the  human  race,  the  high  as  well  as  the  low.  His 
most  intimate  friend,  perhaps,  at  Natchez  was  Judge  Josiah 
Winchester,  an  ex-member  of  the  Mississippi  Supreme 
Court  and  an  opponent  of  secession  in  the  1861  convention. 
Born  in  1809  in  Salem,  Massachusetts,  a  graduate  of  Dart- 
mouth, a  student  of  law  two  years  in  the  office  of  Rufus 
Choate,  Josiah  Winchester  emigrated  to  Natchez  in  the 
early  ^o's  and  there  enjoyed  a  large  and  lucrative  practice 
until,  on  the  stump  and  platform,  beginning  at  the  time  of 
the  Lincoln  and  Douglas  Debate,  he  took  up  the  cudgels 
against  secession.1  He  married  into  the  same  family — the 
Ho  wells — from  which  Jefferson  Davis  took  his  second  wife, 
and  the  women  of  his  family  were  all  in  sympathy  with 
secession.  Judge  Winchester  dined  with  us.  Afterwards 
one  of  his  daughters  said,  "I  did  not  approve  of  my  father 
dining  with  a  Yankee  general."  In  views  and  sympathies 
Judge  Winchester  and  General  Gresham  were  in  thorough 
accord  —  the  one  to  help  keep  his  people  from  foolish  acts, 

iWith  prophetic  vision,  in  his  written  communication  to  the  papers  entitled  "An  Appeal 
to  the  Thinking  Men  of  the  South,"  he  pointed  out  that  "if  the  senators  and  congressmen  of 
the  South  only  remained  at  their  posts,  they  could,  with  the  help  of  their  then  party  friends, 
hold  in  checkmate  any  policies  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  South  that  Lincoln  and  his 
Republican  supporters  might  attempt  to  establish  in  the  South.  And  on  the  other  hand,  by 
seceding  from  the  Union  and  abandoning  the  vantage  ground  that  they  held  in  Congress, 
they  made  it  easily  possible  for  the  Abolitionists  and  the  extreme  men  of  the  North  to 
control  the  situation  and  to  put  into  practice  the  very  laws  which  they  were  most  earnest 
to  defeat." 

"Secession  means  war  —  war,  abolition  without  compensation,  and  the  loss  of  billions  of 
dollars  to  the  Southern  people  in  the  shrinkage  that  would  ensue  in  other  values." 

"Hell  bent  upon  secession,"  as  an  ex-Confederate  put  it  to  me,  "the  radicals  replied  with 
anonymous  letters,  fanatics  warned  him  that  to  continue  his  opposition  to  secession  would 
forfeit  his  life."  But  he  stayed,  and  on  the  last  roll  in  the  Mississippi  Convention  of  January, 
1 86 1,  as  a  delegate  from  Adams  County,  Josiah  Winchester  is  recorded  against  secession. 


2$2        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  other  to  make  it  as  easy  for  them  as  possible  to  resume 
their  loyal  relations. 

I  heard  Judge  Winchester  and  my  husband  discuss  the 
confiscation  acts  of  1861  and  1862,  which  became  the  basis 
for  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  The  acts  were  not 
absolutely  inflexible,  for  they  authorized  the  President  to 
extend  amnesty  and  pardon  "on  such  conditions  as  he  may 
deem  expedient  for  the  public  welfare." 

The  Confederate  government  had  set  the  pace  by  the 
act  of  May  21,  1861,  which  sequestrated  all  debts  due 
from  citizens  of  the  Confederate  States  to  Northern  in- 
dividuals or  corporations  and  commanded  their  payment 
into  the  Confederate  treasury.  The  criticism  of  the  law 
writers  and  publicists,  that  such  laws  are  not  humane 
nor  based  on  justice,  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  they 
are  within  the  war  powers  of  all  governments.  The 
existence  of  this  power  set  my  husband  against  war  as 
one  of  the  means  of  settling  international  difficulties,  and 
he  later  used  it  with  effect,  as  will  appear  in  my  story 
about  the  threatened  clash  with  Great  Britain  in  the 
Cleveland  administration. 

Cotton  was  King,  but  instead  of  being  an  aid,  was  one 
of  the  causes  of  the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy.  One 
day  as  I  was  riding  with  my  husband,  I  said  to  him  as  we 
passed  some  bales  of  cotton  on  the  sidewalk,  "I  want  a 
little  of  that  cotton  to  fill  my  pincushions."  "Not  an 
ounce,"  he  said,  "can  you  have  of  it."  Except  under  cer- 
tain restrictions  cotton  was  contraband.  After  the  Miss- 
issippi River  was  opened,  Union  men  were  permitted  by 
our  government  to  sell  their  own  cotton.  What  a  premium 
on  perjury!  By  statute,  the  Confederate  government  in 
1 86 1  required  all  cotton  above  what  was  necessary  for 
home  consumption  to  be  turned  over  to  it.  The  Southern 
people  were  interdicted  from  dealing  in  what  they  them- 
selves raised.  The  theory  was  that  withholding  the  sale 
of  cotton  would  so  embarrass  England  and  France  that 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  253 

they  would  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Confederacy.1  It  was 
a  mistaken  policy  and  did  much  at  the  start  to  demoralize 
men  in  sympathy  with  the  Confederacy  and  men  in  the 
Confederate  army.  Not  all  orders  of  the  Confederate 
government  to  destroy  cotton  that  would  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  were  obeyed.  Some  Southern  planters 
would  conspire  with  men  in  the  Confederate  army  to  put 
their  cotton  through  the  Confederate  and  Union  lines. 
All  sorts  of  bribes  were  offered  Union  officers.  The  govern- 
ment secret  service  men  were  at  all  times  alert.  But  still 
many  men  made  fortunes.  One  officer  who  was  dismissed 
from  the  army  while  I  was  at  Natchez  boasted  as  he  was 
leaving  that  he  had  made  $100,000  in  the  cotton  trade 
after  the  fall  of  Vicksburg.  Dismissal  was  no  punishment 
to  him.  Another  officer,  whom  General  McPherson,  at 
my  husband's  instance,  removed  from  the  command  at 
Natchez,  has  a  monument  in  the  National  Park  at  Vicks- 
burg. General  Grant  did  everything  in  his  power  to 
lessen  this  evil.  From  helping  a  planter  get  his  cotton 
through  the  lines  for  a  consideration  —  and  there  were 
men  in  both  armies  who  did  this  —  it  was  not  far  to 
actual  stealing.  And  there  were  men  in  both  armies  who 
did  that. 

One  of  the  brightest  men  it  has  been  my  pleasure  to 
meet  is  James  Surget,  approaching  four-score  years,  still 
living  on  "Cherry  Grove"  plantation,  nine  miles  out  of 
Natchez,  where  he  was  born  and  where  his  grandfather  in 
1787  established  himself  with  his  slaves  —  not  the  finest 
house  but  the  handsomest  grounds  and  trees  in  all  the 
Natchez  country.  James  Surget  was  another  intimate  of 
my  husband  at  Natchez.  In  addition  to  "Cherry  Grove," 
he  owned  two  large  plantations  across  the  river  in  Con- 
cordia Parish,  Louisiana,  and  one  thousand  slaves  when  the 

1  When  it  was  apparent  that  New  Orleans  would  fall,  the  Confederate  goverrment  burned 
$80,000,000  worth  of  cotton  stored  there.  Then,  May  5,  1862,  under  authority  of  an  act  of  the 
Confederate  congress,  General  Beauregard  ordered  all  cotton  within  five  miles  of  the  Mississippi 
River  burned. 

17 


254        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

war  began.  Although  he  suffered  a  great  loss  in  world's 
goods,  the  war  did  not  break  him.1 

In  discussing  the  war,  Mr.  Surget  said  to  me: 

1 '  I  voted  against  secession  in  1 86 1 .  I  know  it  is  contrary 
to  the  general  impression,  but  the  large  slaveholder  was 
against  secession.1  In  the  black  belt  along  the  Mississippi 
River,  where  the  most  of  the  slaves  were,  the  vote  was  against 
secession.  What  the  large  planters  wanted  in  1861  was 
cooperation;  that  is,  all  the  Cotton  States  threaten  to  go 
out  in  a  body,  but  instead  of  going,  accept  guaranties  or 
compensation  rather  than  fight  for  our  negroes.  Never 
was  there  a  man  of  character  an  overseer.  This  was  the 
great  drawback  to  the  large  slaveholders.  But  we  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  politicians,  and  for  a  time  I  followed  them. 

"When  the  order  came  May  5,  1862,  to  burn  all  the 
cotton  within  five  miles  of  the  river,  acting  under  the  di- 
rect orders  of  the  provost  marshal  of  our  district,  I  burned 
1200  bales  of  my  own  cotton  on  the  Ashley  plantation  and 
500  bales  of  my  own  cotton  on  the  Waterloo  plantation 
in  Concordia  Parish.  I  also,  under  the  same  order,  burned 
500  bales  of  cotton  eight  miles  below  Natchez  on  the  Missis- 
sippi side  that  belonged  to  Washington  Ford.  After  the 
war  Ford  sued  me  for  $200,000  in  the  Circuit  Court  of 
Adams  County,  Mississippi,  claiming  the  act  of  the  Con- 
federate Congress  under  which  the  military  orders  were 
issued  for  the  burning  of  the  cotton  was  void.  I  beat 
him  before  the  jury,  which  was  in  part  made  up  of 
negroes.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  Ford 
vs.  Surget  97  U.  S.,  held  that  while  the  acts  of  the  Con- 
federate Congress  were  void,  the  military  duress  I  was 
under  was  a  reality,  and  Ford  had  no  recourse  on  me. 

"Before  the  order  came,  I  had  a  tip.  My  uncle,  Jacob 
Surget,  a  Union  man  living  in  New  York,  was  the  owner 
of  the  Lin  wood  plantation  just  below  Natchez  and  within 
five  miles  of  the  river.     On  this  plantation  my  uncle  had 

1  "The  large  slave-holders  as  a  class,  uninfluenced  by  those  who  used  the  institution  of  slav- 
ery as  a  political  weapon,  would  not  have  taken  measures  to  break  up  the  Union,  because  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  election." — Blaine,  "Twenty  Years  of  Congress,"  Vol.  2,  p.  75.    Seepages  6 and  7. 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  255 

627  bales  of  the  crop  of  186 1.  I  promptly  hauled  it  to 
my  place  at  'Cherry  Grove,'  nine  miles  from  the  river. 
Then  the  order  came  to  burn  all  cotton  within  ten  miles 
of  the  river.  I  then  moved  this  cotton  to  Kingston,  four- 
teen miles  from  the  river.  After  your  husband  was  in 
command  I  hauled  this  cotton  to  Natchez  preparatory 
to  shipping  it  to  my  uncle  in  New  York.  Of  the  627  bales, 
600  were  well  packed  and  went  forward  without  delay. 
The  27  were  not  properly  packed  for  shipment  and  were 
held  for  repacking.  While  I  was  gone  home  the  cotton 
thieves  levied  on  these  27  bales.  The  following  Monday 
I  was  back  in  Natchez  and  easily  located  and  identified 
the  cotton.  Your  husband  gave  me  a  peremptory  order 
to  the  provost-marshal  to  see  that  these  2  7  bales  were  turned 
over  to  me.  I  presented  the  order  to  the  provost-marshal. 
I  was  graciously  received  and  given  a  written  acknowledge- 
ment that  the  cotton  was  held  subject  to  my  order.  I  went 
to  '  Cherry  Grove'  expecting  to  return  the  following  Friday 
and  ship  the  27  bales  on  the  boat  scheduled  to  leave  that 
day.  Upon  my  return  on  Thursday,  I  learned  that  the  day 
before,  Wednesday,  General  Gresham  had  suddenly  left 
for  Vicksburg  to  join  General  Sherman  on  the  Meridian 
campaign.  I  never  again  saw  my  uncle's  27  bales  of  cotton. 
But  he  realized  $300,000  on  the  600  bales  I  shipped  him. 
He  could  have  obtained  $500,000,  but  he  was  holding  for 
$600,000  and  sold  on  a  declining  market." 

Around  that  mess  table  at  "Rosalie"  I  learned  much. 
One  day  I  heard  my  husband  say,  "Babbitt,  we  are  operat- 
ing under  the  war  power  so  we  can  let  negroes  testify  before 
the  provost-marshal."  Under  the  law  as  it  then  was  in 
Mississippi,  as  in  all  the  other  Slave  States,  a  freedman, 
no  matter  how  small  the  strain  —  even  one-sixteenth  — 
could  not  testify  in  the  Mississippi  courts. 

While  my  husband  was  in  command  at  Natchez,  a 
white  man  killed  a  negro,  who  was  the  aggressor.  In  his 
Emancipation  Proclamation  Mr.  Lincoln  had  enjoined  on 
the  freedmen  to  work  and  to  abstain  from  all  violence  unless 


256        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

in  necessary  self-defense.  The  white  man  was  admitted 
to  bail,  was  advised  to  retain  Judge  Winchester^  which  he 
did,  and  was  discharged  on  the  ground  of  self-defense, 
although  the  negroes  were  called  on  to  testify  against  him. 

Soon  after  I  reached  Natchez,  General  Alonzo  Thomas, 
the  adjutant-general  of  the  army,  as  the  personal  repre- 
sentative of  the  Secretary  of  War,  arrived. 

General  Thomas's  special  mission  was  the  enlistment 
of  the  negroes  in  the  army.  It  was  not  General  Grant's 
plan.  My  husband  questioned  its  wisdom  and  so  did 
General  Crocker.  Their  idea  was  to  keep  the  negroes  on 
the  plantations.  But  the  men  in  the  field  were  not  in 
control.  To  Colonel  Farrar,  who  commanded  across  the 
river  at  Vidalia,  was  intrusted  the  duty  of  inaugurating 
General  Thomas's  plan.  Farrar  was  an  honest  man  and 
he  had  many  clashes  with  General  Thomas.  General 
Grant  sustained  Farrar  whenever  he  could.  In  the  Fall  of 
1863  Colonel  Farrar  organized  what  he  called  the  Sixth 
United  States  Artillery  Colored.  He  impressed  the  best 
able-bodied  negroes  and  all  the  horses  and  bridles  he  could 
lay  hands  on.  James  Surget  is  my  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  the  negro  troops — and  some  of  them  had  been 
his  slaves  and  had  witnessed  harsh  treatment  at  the  hands 
of  some  of  the  Confederates  —  were  most  considerate  to 
the  white  people. 

The  enlistment  of  the  young  able-bodied  negroes  oper- 
ated as  General  Grant,  General  Crocker,  and  my  husband 
feared.  Those  who  remained  behind  were  dissatisfied. 
They  would  not  work  on  the  plantations.  They  flocked 
to  the  towns,  where  the  soldiers  were  camped.  They  were 
called  ''contrabands."  Their  presence  in  and  about  the 
army  was  an  evil,  and  as  there  were  not  sufficient  medical 
officers,  disease  spread.1  There  were  a  great  many  of  them 
in  and  around  Natchez,  and  they  were  a  source  of  constant 
anxiety  to  my  husband.  Many  were  kept  in  an  inclosure 
in  "Natchez  under  the  Hill."     Out  of  the  four  hundred 

1  See  pages  6  and  7. 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  257 

negroes  from  James  Surget's  two  plantations  in  Concordia 
Parish,  Louisiana,  who  came  to  Natchez  after  July  4,  1863, 
he  had  the  names  of  three  hundred  who  had  died  by 
January  1,  1864.  Drinking  river  water,  which  produced 
dysentery,  was  one  of  the  prime  causes  of  this  great  mortal- 
ity. In  bondage  on  the  plantations,  they  had  good  medical 
attendance  and  good  cistern  water  to  drink.  River  water 
caused  great  sickness  among  the  soldiers,  and  it  was  fatal 
to  the  contrabands.  The  cisterns  about  "Rosalie"  were 
soon  empty,  and  from  drinking  river  water  I  myself  was 
taken  ill,  and  it  was  deemed  best  for  me  to  go  north. 

Zealous  in  protecting  the  people  in  their  homes,  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  was  severe  in  punishing  robbery  and  rapine  on 
the  part  of  soldiers.1 

1  Captain  John  F.  Jenkins,  an  ex-Confederate  and  a  native  of  Natchez,  writes  me  the 
following: 

"General  Gresham  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  preserving  the  rights  of  non-combatants 
to  their  personal  and  real  property.  He  enacted  stern  measures  to  repress  any  violence  or 
robberies  by  the  federal  soldiery. 

"A  notable  instance  of  General  Gresham's  activity  in  enforcing  the  law  and  order,  and 
protecting  the  property  rights  of  the  non-combatants  of  the  vicinity  of  Natchez,  was  the 
punishment  of  some  of  his  soldiers  for  the  robbery  of  a  large  amount  of  silver  belonging  to  the 
estate  of  Dr.  J.  C  Jenkins,  of  which  estate  Judge  Winchester  happened  to  be  the  executor. 
The  young  ladies  of  the  family,  chaperoned  by  their  governess,  Madam  Mitchelly,  were  living 
at  '  Elgin,'  the  family  home,  about  seven  miles  from  the  city  of  Natchez.  About  10  o'clock  P.M. 
some  soldiers  appeared  at  the  front  door  and  demanded  to  be  admitted  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  ordered  by  their  officers  to  search  for  arms.  They  were,  of  course,  admitted,  and  as 
soon  as  they  entered,  the  inmates  of  the  house  were  all  collected  in  one  room  and  put  under 
guard  while  the  remaining  soldiers  ransacked  the  house,  taking  from  the  safes  and  closets  about 
$1,000  in  silverware.  Among  this  silver  were  the  drinking  cups  and  spoons  and  knives  and 
forks  owned  by  Surgeon  John  F.  Carmichael,  who  was  a  Revolutionary  War  veteran,  and  his 
commission  signed  by  George  Washington  himself  and  countersigned  by  General  Knox,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  was  hanging  on  the  wall  of  the  room  whence  his  silver  was  pilfered.  The 
robbers,  having  secured  their  booty,  retired  without  further  molestation  of  the  inmates.  Early 
next  day  the  ladies  repaired  to  Natchez  and  informed  Judge  Winchester  of  the  robbery.  He 
accompanied  them  at  once  to  the  headquarters  of  General  Gresham,  who  heard  their  story 
and  then  immediately  set  in  motion  all  his  secret  service  men.  In  three  or  four  days  the  men 
were  spotted,  duly  identified,  and  lodged  in  jail.  In  a  very  few  days  after,  a  court  martial 
was  organized,  with  many  distinguished  officers  in  charge.  The  court  martial  resulted  in  the 
conviction  of  the  thieves,  two  of  whom  were  sentenced  to  hard  labor  in  the  penitentiary  for 
twenty  years  and  one  for  ten  years. 

"This  act  of  justice,  and  many  others  besides,  endeared  General  Gresham  to  the  hearts 
of  the  citizens  of  Natchez,  and  they  grieved  indeed  when  the  vicissitudes  of  war  removed  him 
to  another  field  of  action. 

"It  is  of  interest  that  the  cup  of  Surgeon  Carmichael,  as  well  as  about  twenty  pieces  of 
silver  formerly  belonging  to  the  Revolutionary  War  veteran,  were  discovered  some  months 
afterwards  in  the  possession  of  a  colored  woman.  They  were  readily  secured,  and  the  cup 
still  is  held  as  a  much  prized  relic  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  as  well  as  of  the  robbery  of  '  Elgin 
and  the  Civil  War  of  1863." 


258        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

While  I  was  at  Natchez  reconstruction  in  Mississippi 
was  begun.  And  while  General  Thomas's  mission  concerned 
the  status  of  the  negro,  the  record  is  that  he  soon  reported 
to  the  Secretary  of  War,  ''that  in  the  opinion  of  General 
Crocker  and  General  Gresham  the  time  for  reconstruction 
in  Mississippi  had  come." 

But  it  was  not  the  kind  that  came  later  —  that  of  Thad- 
deus  Stevens  and  Charles  Sumner.  It  was  that  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  General  Grant,  General  Crocker,  and  General 
Gresham. 

Before  the  war  Adams  County,  including  Natchez,  was 
a  Whig  community.  It  sent  a  solid  Union  delegation  to 
the  Secession  Convention.  After  the  ordinance  of  seces- 
sion was  declared  adopted  and  a  referendum  was  denied, 
all  the  active  young  men,  including  those  who  had  opposed 
secession,  went  into  the  Confederate  army,  and  they  were 
the  longest  to  stay  there.  But  some  of  the  far-seeing  men 
of  means,  while  giving  the  semblance  of  their  allegiance  to 
the  Confederacy,  hedged  against  its  failure  by  transferring 
their  bank  accounts  from  New  Orleans  to  Liverpool  and 
Paris. 

It  was  not  long — December  8,  1863 — until  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Proclamation  of  Amnesty  and  Pardon  came.  It  was  most 
generous.  It  exempted  only  the  highest  civil  and  military 
officers  of  the  Confederacy  from  its  operation,  but  he 
assured  these  as  complete  pardon  as  was  within  his  con- 
stitutional power  if  they  would  only  return  to  their  alle- 
giance. 

My  husband  interpreted  this  proclamation  that  no 
duress  should  be  used  in  inducing  men  qualified  to  accept 
its  terms.  The  published  records  of  the  War  Department 
show  that  he  ordered  Colonel  Farrar  not  to  impress  men 
in  Louisiana  into  the  United  States  army  against  their  will. 
To  Frank  Surget  he  said,  "The  time  will  come,  and  it  is 
not  far  distant,  I  believe,  when  you  can  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  without  running  any  risk  of  having  your  property 


NATCHEZ    IN    1863  259 

outside  of  our  lines  destroyed  by  the  other  side.  Until 
then,  continue  as  you  are,  and  come  and  dine  with  me 
this  evening." 

At  that  time  Mr.  Surget  had  500  bales  of  cotton  at 
Woodville  under  the  control  of  the  Confederates,  which 
would  have  been  promptly  destroyed,  he  said,  if  he  took 
the  oath.  The  richest  man  in  Adams  County,  and  one  of 
the  wealthiest  in  the  South  when  the  war  began,  the  fact 
that  he  was  forced  to  render  it  some  aid  at  the  start  and 
finesse  as  long  as  part  of  his  property  was  outside  of  the 
Union  lines,  may  account  for  the  belief  that  he  was  one  of 
the  ultra-secessionists.  Neither  is  his  loyalty  to  the  Con- 
federacy established  by  the  fact  that  he  afterwards  told 
General  Brayman, 'one  of  the  political  generals,  " There 
are  two  things  you  can't  do — you  can't  make  me  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  and  you  can't  break  me."  Most  of  Mr. 
Surget's  cash  was  then  in  Liverpool  and  Paris.  Man  of 
intellect  that  he  was,  he  knew  he  could  get  justice  in  the 
end.  James  Surget  wanted  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
in  the  Spring  of  1864,  but  General  Brayman  would  not 
allow  him  to  do  so  until  Mr.  Surget  threatened  he  would 
apply  to  General  McPherson  at  Vicksburg  and,  if  refused 
then,  would  appeal  to  President  Lincoln.  In  other  words, 
General  Brayman  would  be  paid  for  doing  what  it  was  his 
plain  duty  to  do. 

Before  the  advent  of  the  ' 'carpet-bagger,"  the  robbery 
of  the  Southern  people  began.  As  General  Grant  had  left 
it,  there  were  handsome  lace  curtains  in  the  Wilson  parlors, 
the  executive  offices.  A  woman  who  traveled  with  Adju- 
tant-General Thomas  called  on  me.  She  said,  "Why 
don't  you  crush  these  curtains?"  "What  do  you  mean?" 
I  asked  her.  "Take  them  and  ship  them  home."  Her 
exit  was  precipitate.  I  went  to  my  husband  and  told  him 
the  story.  He  said,  "Tell  Mrs.  Wilson  to  remove  her  cur- 
tains at  once.  I  may  be  ordered  from  here  any  day." 
This  she  did,  and  they  were  never  in  sight  again  until  after 


260         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  close  of  the  war.  And  there  were  other  robbers  than  the 
Yankee  soldiers.  The  "tax  in  kind"1  was  not  always  levied 
with  a  considerate,  a  delicate  or  an  honest  hand.  There  were 
Confederate  officers  who  were  said  to  have  been  "better 
tax  collectors  than  fighters."  Confederate  currency  soon 
became  valueless.  So  most  of  all  that  was  raised  was 
levied  on  or  taken  by  the  Confederate  government. 

One  day  John  W.  Redding,  a  ten-year-old  boy,  unac- 
companied, bolted  into  headquarters  almost  out  of  breath 
exclaiming,  "General,  the  Yankees  have  taken  all  our 
saddles  and  bridles  and  I  can't  ride  my  pony."  This  was 
at  the  time  Colonel  Farrar  was  organizing  his  negro  regi- 
ment of  artillery  and  impressing  negroes,  horses,  and  bridles 
without  regard  to  private  rights.  An  orderly  was  sent  for 
a  saddle  and  bridle,  and  the  boy  went  home  happy.  An- 
other schoolboy,  thirteen  years  of  age,  George  W.  Koontz, 
fared  even  worse,  for  Colonel  Farrar  had  not  only  taken  his 
saddle  and  bridle  but  his  pony  also.  A  call  at  headquarters 
restored  to  him  his  pony  and  equipment. 

Henry  Vaughn  of  Kingston,  Adams  County,  years  after- 
wards told  me  this  story:  "When  only  fifteen,  I  ran  off 
and  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army.  After  a  time,  on 
account  of  my  youth,  my  guardian  secured  my  discharge. 
Upon  reaching  home  I  was  told  that  my  favorite  filly, 
'Puss,'  had  been  stolen  by  some  contraband  negroes. 
I  announced  to  my  mother  and  my  guardian  my  intention 
of  going  to  Natchez  in  search  of  'Puss.'  Their  opposition 
was  so  great  that  I  stole  off  and  rode  a  mule  into  Natchez  — 
the  pickets  passed  me  through  when  I  said  I  was  going  for 
a  doctor.  I  hunted  through  the  livery  stables  and  all 
over  the  town  for  'Puss'  until  finally  I  halted  on  Orleans 
Street,  opposite  'Rosalie'  and  General  Gresham's  head- 
quarters. While  I  was  standing  there  an  officer  rode  up 
on  'Puss,'  dismounted,  gave  'Puss's'  rein  to  an  orderly,  and 
went  into  headquarters.  After  a  time  I  entered  the  lawn, 
giving  '  Puss'  a  caress  as  I  passed.    Then  I  went  into  General 

iThe  "tax  in  kind"  was  one-tenth  of  all  that  was  raised. 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  261 

Gresham's  office  and  told  him  '  Puss '  was  my  animal  and  I 
would  like  to  have  her.  The  officer  who  had  ridden  her  up 
admitted  he  had  bought  her  from  a  negro.  'Young  man, 
I  don't  doubt  your  statement,  but  it  is  not  sufficient  for 
me  to  act  on,'  said  General  Gresham  to  me.  My  answer 
was,  'Turn  "Puss"  loose  on  the  lawn  without  saddle  or  bri- 
dle, and  if  I  can't  satisfy  you  she  is  mine,  I  will  release  all 
claims  to  her. '  At  first  she  went  to  picking.  From  behind 
a  bush  I  called  her,  'Puss,  Puss.'  She  pricked  up  her  ears, 
whinnied,  and  came  to  me.  '  Down  on  your  knees,  "  Puss." 
Down  she  went.  'She  is  your  animal,'  said  General  Gres- 
ham, and  in  addition  he  gave  me  a  pass  through  his  lines." 
Guards  were  furnished  to  many  families,  especially  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  city.  Mrs.  Nancy  W.  Winston  and 
her  granddaughter,  a  miss  of  fifteen,  Nannie  W.  Thornhill, 
lived  at  the  head  of  Washington  Street.  With  them  were 
Mrs.  Anne  E.  Stanton,  the  mother  of  "Tip,"  a  gallant 
Confederate  soldier.  ' '  Our  men  were  all  in  the  Confederate 
army,"  said  Miss  Thornhill,  in  telling  the  story.  "We  had 
been  furnished  a  guard  at  night  of  two  soldiers.  One  was 
an  old  man,  the  other  a  young  soldier  of  twenty-two.  Early 
evenings  until  bedtime  they  played  cards  and  had  music 
with  us  and  then  stood  guard  until  sunrise,  when  they 
returned  to  camp.  One  day  the  household  was  thrown  into 
consternation.  The  guards  must  leave  with  their  regi- 
ment to  go  to  Vicksburg.  Grandmother  did  not  know 
what  to  do,  but  on  my  insistence  concluded  to  call  on 
General  Gresham,  wrhom  we  had  never  met.  The  general 
readily  agreed  to  leave  us  one  guard  but  said  it  must  be 
the  old  man.  The  reason  he  gave  was  that  the  young 
man  was  the  better  soldier  and  could  stand  the  marching 
which  was  in  store  for  them,  where  the  old  man  might 
break  down.  'But,'  I  said,  'we  don't  want  the  old  man, 
we  want  the  young  man;  the  old  man  is  stupid.'  Finally 
the  general  agreed  that  we  could  draw  straws  as  to  which 
should  go  and  which  should  stay.     I  was  to  superintend 


262  LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  drawing.  I  did  so  and  we  got  the  younger  soldier." 
Miss  Thornhill  became  the  wife  of  Lieutenant  W.  P.  Callon, 
of  the  Fourth  Illinois  Cavalry,  then  on  General  Hatch's 
staff  and  subsequently  a  leading  member  of  the  bar  of 
central  Illinois.  Mrs.  Callon's  husband  died  and  she  re- 
turned to  her  native  city.  Though  eligible  and  of  the 
bluest  Southern  blood,  she  is  not  one  of  the  ''Daughters." 

After  the  Meridian  campaign  there  was  no  work  for 
real  soldiers  at  Natchez.  My  husband  followed  General 
Sherman.  The  political  generals .  who  were  left  behind 
were  subjected  to  all  sorts  of  annoyances.  Many  people 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance,  not  intending  to  keep  it,  and 
did  not  do  so.  Sentinels  were  waylaid  and  shot  down,  and 
similar  petty  acts  committed.  But  none  of  these  acts 
justified  the  measures  to  which  the  authorities  resorted. 
The  testimony  of  the  citizens  of  Natchez  is,  and  in  this 
they  are  corroborated  by  Colonel  Farrar,  that  General 
Brayman  not  only  was  corrupt  in  money  matters  but  made 
war  on  women.1 

The  following  is  an  incident  which  illustrated  some  of 
the  feminine  traits — what  the  political  generals  would  have 
considered  an  insult — that  did  not  disturb  the  equanimity 
of  General  Gresham. 

The  Protestant  Orphans'  Home  of  Natchez  was  founded 
in  1816  and  was  made  a  State  institution  in  182 1.  It  was 
controlled  by  a  Board  of  Trustees  composed  of  ladies  of 
Natchez.  It  felt  the  ravages  of  war,  and  the  time  came 
when  there  was  nothing  with  which  to  feed  the  orphans. 
The  chairman  of  the  board  was  appointed  a  committee  to 
call  on  General  Gresham  and  get  the  necessary  rations  to 
keep  the  orphans  from  starving.  At  "Rosalie"  she  ad- 
dressed an  orderly  at  the  foot  of  the  gallery,  ' '  I  want  to  see 
General  Gresham."  "Walk  in,  Madam,  and  turn  to  the 
left."  Looking  up  at  the  American  flag  that  hung  from  the 
upper  gallery,  she  said :  ' '  The  orphans  can  starve  before  I 
will  step  under  that  flag.     I  would  not  go  under  it  to  get 

1  See  page  249. 


NATCHEZ    IN     1863  263 

bread  for  my  own  children."  (I  am  giving  the  woman's 
own  account.)  She  wanted  the  orderly  to  ask  the  General 
to  come  out.  This  he  refused  to  do.  Finally  she  resorted 
to  strategy.  "Tell  the  General  there  is  a  lady  outside  who 
cannot  ascend  the  gallery  steps  but  who  is  very  anxious  to 
see  him."  Promptly  the  General  appeared.  "General," 
she  said,  "I  am  a  Rebel.  I  am  the  president  of  the  board 
of  trustees  of  the  Protestant  Orphans'  Home  and  I  have 
been  sent  to  request  you  to  issue  rations  to  keep  the  little 
ones  from  starving.  But  to  save  them  from  that  fate,  as 
well  as  the  members  of  my  own  family  if  that  be  neces- 
sary, I  would  not  step  under  your  flag."  According  to  her 
story,  told  years  afterwards,  this  was  the  answer  of  the 
General:  "I  admire  your  frankness,  but  your  sentiments 
will  not  cause  us  to  allow  your  orphans  to  starve,  and  I  will 
issue  orders  for  all  the  necessary  rations."  Resuming  her 
narration,  this  woman — or  lady,  for  she  was  refined  and 
cultured  and  a  great  church  worker — said:  "We  got  the 
rations,  and  didn't  I  bring  that  Yankee  general  down!" 
Southern  women  of  good  Confederate  extraction  acted  thus. 
But  the  littleness  of  the  sex  is  not  plead  in  palliation  of  the 
corruption  and  wantonness  of  the  political  generals. 

Another  most  accomplished  woman,  whose  sympathies 
were  with  the  Union  but  whose  husband  was  in  the  Con- 
federate army,  told  me  how  her  younger  sister  did  every- 
thing she  could  within  the  bounds  of  polite  society  to  arouse 
my  husband's  Yankee  sentiments.  Never  could  she  get 
a  "rise"  out  of  him.  The  former's  claim  against  the  govern- 
ment for  property  taken  by  the  United  States  forces  was, 
on  my  husband's  statement,  allowed. 

Just  one  more  incident.  On  the  staff  of  the  Confederate 
or  Military  Governor  of  Louisiana  was  Colonel  Lemuel  P. 
Conner,  a  citizen  of  Natchez.  In  December,  1863,  camp 
measles  extended  to  the  children  of  Colonel  Conner's 
family.  Two  of  them  had  died  and  the  others  were  very 
dangerously  ill.     January  10,  1864,  Colonel  Conner  applied 


264         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

to  Brigadier  General  Gresham  for  permission  to  visit  the 
remaining  members  of  his  family  and  for  a  safe  conduct  in 
and  out  of  Natchez.  It  was  promptly  granted.  March  27, 
1916,  Lemuel  P.  Conner,  one  of  the  sick  children  who  sur- 
vived, wrote  me: 

"Your  husband  granted  the  permission  asked  because 
he  was  a  man  before  a  soldier  ....  and  showed  to  a 
suffering  mortal  the  broad  humanity  which  earned  for  him 
the  respect,  the  esteem,  and  even  the  affection  of  our  people 
here  over  whom  for  a  time  he  was  virtually  the  ruler. 

"Away  off  yonder  in  the  future  when  my  descendants 
are  reading  the  history  of  our  country,  of  the  terrible  frat- 
ricidal strife  in  the  sixties,  and  there  shall  come  up  the  name 
of  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  they  will  recall  it  as  the  name  of 
the  man  who  was  kind  to  their  ancestor;  for  I  am  handing 
the  story  on  down  with  directions  to  carry  it  to  further 
generations;  thus  paying  my  small  tribute  of  appreciation." 

When  I  went  north  early  in  November,  river  travel  was 
so  hazardous  that  my  husband  sent  me  to  Memphis  in  a 
"tin  clad."  Furthermore,  he  sent  in  my  care  an  accom- 
plished Southern  woman  who  had  made  herself  very  offen- 
sive to  the  Federal  authorities  at  Natchez  by  acting  as  a 
Rebel  spy.  General  Crocker  would  not  give  her  a  safe 
conduct,  and  without  this  she  was  afraid  to  start  north. 
General  Crocker  had  been  ordered  away  and  W.  Q.  Gresham 
was  in  supreme  command.  The  madame  had  had  enough 
of  war  and  wanted  to  get  back  to  relatives  in  Missouri. 
We  parted  friends  at  Cairo. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
MINOR  CAMPAIGNS— RE-ENLISTMENTS 


HARMFUL  PROLONGATION  OF  THE  WAR AMERICA  S  OB- 
LIGATION   TO    OTHER    LANDS UNION    REVERSE    AT    CHICKA- 

MAUGA MERIDIAN  EXPEDITION    LED    BY  GENERAL  SHERMAN 

WARFARE  IN  MISSISSIPPI   AND  LOUISIANA CONFEDERATES 

THREATEN    NATCHEZ  —  GENERAL  GRESHAM   COMMANDS  EXPE- 
DITION    AGAINST      FORT      ADAMS DANGERS     OF     MISSISSIPPI 

RIVER    TRAVEL THE    MERIDIAN    EXPEDITION THIRTEENTH 

AMENDMENT     RATIFIED    BY    SENATE,     BUT    OPPOSED     IN     THE 
HOUSE RE-ENLISTMENT    OF    VETERANS. 

AFTER  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  the  Confederate  defeat 
***•  at  Gettysburg,  and  the  annihilation  of  the  Morgan 
Raiders,  Mr.  Lincoln's  overtures,  which  still  held  good, 
should  have  been  accepted.  "Had  Alexander  H.  Stephens 
instead  of  Jefferson  Davis  been  President  of  the  Con- 
federacy," James  Surget  said  to  me  in  19 14,  "the  war 
would  have  ended  in  the  Summer  of  1863,  and  we  would 
have  received  something  for  our  slaves."  All  along  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  argued  it  would  be  cheaper  to  pay  a  reasonable 
amount  for  the  slaves  than  to  wage  war  for  another  year. 
The  bitterness  that  he  had  manifested  in  1858  had  dis- 
appeared from  his  heart  long  before  1863. 

The  ability  of  the  Confederate  soldier,  sustained  and 
encouraged  as  he  was  by  the  women,  to  stay  on  the  firing 
line  to  the  last,  cannot  be  pleaded  in  palliation  of  the 
Southern  leadership  —  that  of  a  single  man.  Military 
genius  that  he  was,  and  no  man  could  have  done  better 
with  the  crumbling  Confederacy,  Jefferson  Davis  was  no 
statesman.  He  did  not  consider  the  position  of  his  peo- 
ple.    Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg,  especially  Vicksburg  —  for 

265 


266         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

beyond  cavil  it  revealed  Grant's  genius  —  demonstrated 
what  Jefferson  Davis  himself  had  predicted,  that  the  South 
could  not  win  if  it  came  to  a  final  test  of  arms. 

The  other  parties  to  the  contest,  over-seas,  Russia  on 
the  one  hand  and  England  and  France  on  the  other,  saw 
the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  From  the  beginning  Russia 
had  been  the  friend  of  the  United  States.  Now  she  was 
to  come  out  in  the  open. 

Think  not  that  anything  escaped  the  men,  the  bright- 
est and  most  alert  I  ever  met,  who  assembled  around  that 
mess  table  at  "  Rosalie,"  while  I  was  there  in  September, 
October,  and  early  November,  1863. 

One  morning  at  breakfast  Cyrus  Hall,  as  Colonel  Hall 
was  universally  called,  said:  "England  and  France  will 
now  desert  the  Confederacy,  for  Russia  with  her  men,  her 
guns,  and  ships,  has  come  out  for  the  Union."  "That  is 
what  this  Russian  fleet  means  in  New  York  harbor,"  said 
Colonel  Kent,  another  Illinois  man.  Colonel  Bryant,  of  the 
Twelfth  Wisconsin,  said,  "The  Czar  has  freed  his  serfs  and 
he  is  going  to  help  us  free  the  negroes;  with  him  on  our 
side,  we  can  whip  the  Confederacy,  England,  and  France 
combined."  My  husband  voiced  his  heart's  desire  for 
peace :  ' '  Surely  the  men  in  Richmond  will  not  longer  press 
the  contest."  And  then  he  said  what  he  had  said  and 
written  over  and  over,  "The  Southern  people  want  the 
war  to  end."  It  subsequently  developed  (as  well  as  any- 
thing is  established  without  the  official  reports)  that  the 
sealed  orders  of  the  two  Russian  fleets  —  the  one  that  first 
appeared  in  New  York,  the  other  in  San  Francisco  harbor  — 
required  their  respective  admirals  to  report  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States  if,  on  their  arrival  in  American  waters, 
they  found  the  United  States  at  war  with  England,  or  with 
England  and  France  combined. 

Later,  in  Washington,  as  a  member  of  President  Arthur's 
cabinet  and  Secretary  of  State  under  President  Cleveland, 
it  was  my  husband's  pleasure  to  acknowledge  the  obliga- 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  T  M  E  NT  S      267 

tions  of  the  United  States  to  Russia  for  the  aid  Russia  had 
rendered  us  during  the  Civil  War.  With  Baron  De  Struve 
and  Madam  De  Struve  in  President  Arthur's  time,  and 
Prince  Cantacuzene,  the  Russian  Ambassador  in  Cleveland's 
second  administration,  our  relations  were  more  than  cordial. 
The  Baron  and  Madam  De  Struve  were  the  best  posted 
diplomats  I  ever  met. 

Going  back  to  1863, — of  passing  events,  Jefferson  Davis 
was  the  best  informed  of  men.  But  he  did  not  take  his  own 
people  into  his  confidence.  Bitterness  then,  as  ever  after- 
wards, seemed  to  be  in  the  Confederate  chieftain's  heart.1 
I  lived  in  constant  dread  of  the  suffering  that  might  and  did 
come  to  me,  and  toward  the  man  who  could  but  did 
not  end  the  carnage  after  the  civilized  world  and  many  of 
his  faithful,  gallant  followers  recognized  the  hopelessness  of 
the  contest,2  I  may  be  pardoned  for  cherishing  some  resent- 
ment. The  acceptance  of  the  generous  terms  Mr.  Lincoln 
held  out  to  the  last  involved  no  humiliation  to  the  people 
who  had  helped  make  and  whose  destiny  was  bound  up 
in  the  Union. 

War  in  1863,  with  the  United  States  backed  by  Russia, 
would  have  swept  the  English  commerce  from  the  seas. 
Raising  the  blockade  as  the  Laird  Brothers'  rams  might 
have  done,  would  not  have  stopped  but  would  have  accele- 
rated the  march  of  Sherman's  armies  to  the  sea. 

As  my  husband  had  predicted,  the  invasion  of  Penn- 
sylvania by  Lee,  and  of  Indiana  and  Ohio  by  "Morgan's 

1  In  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederacy,  Vol.  1,  page  2,  Mr.  Davis  writes:  "The  English- 
man's sense  of  fair  play  and  the  manly  instincts  which  predisposes  him  to  side  with  the  weak, 
gave  us  hosts  of  friends,  but  all  their  good  intentions  were  paralyzed  or  foiled  by  their  wily 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  Lord  John  Russell,  and  his  coadjutor  on  this  side,  the  artful,  unscru- 
pulous United  States  Secretary  of  State,  William  H.  Seward." 

2  From  the  ranks  of  the  Confederate  army  the  cry  went  up,  "We  cannot  win."  The 
Irish  Confederate  General,  Patrick  R.  Cleburne,  who  had  received  his  military  education  in  the 
English  army,  and  his  wit  and  generous  sentiments  along  with  his  race,  in  an  elaborate  argu- 
ment or  memorial  put  it  up  to  Jefferson  Davis  as  Commander-in-Chief,  that  the  only  hope  for 
the  Confederacy  was  to  free  and  arm  the  slaves.  "So  long  as  we  cling  to  slavery,  not  even 
England  or  all  Europe,"  argued  General  Cleburne,  "can  acknowledge  our  independence." 
General  Lee,  I  was  informed  by  Colonel  Berkley  of  or.e  of  the  Virginia  regiments,  verbally 
advised  Mr.  Davis  to  enroll  and  save  the  negro.  When  too  late  to  do  any  good,  the  Confed- 
erate government  attempted  to  carry  out  the  plan. 


268         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

horse  thieves" — I  use  the  expression  as  one  of  the  times,  not 
by  way  of  reflection  —  proved  a  good  thing  for  the  Union 
cause.1  Although  Morgan  often  left  better  horses  than  he 
took,  my  father  never  was  as  strong  a  Secessionist  or  Rebel 
—  for  he  never  minced  words  —  after  that  daring  raid.  One 
thorough-blooded  Kentucky  mare  my  father  bought  at  the 
sale  in  Corydon  of  the  broken-down  Morgan  stock  soon 
recovered  her  "bottom,"  and  at  the  Harrison  County  Fair 
in  September,  1864,  in  the  free-for-all,  outdistanced  all 
comers.  She  was  named  "Lady  Morgan,"  and  after  years 
of  service  was  given  an  honorable  burial. 

It  was  while  I  was  at  Natchez  that  General  Grant  went 
north,  only  stopping  at  "Natchez  under  the  Hill"  for  a 
few  minutes  as  the  boat  landed  for  fuel.  He  and  many  of 
his  soldiers  were  drawn  east  by  the  Union  reverse  at  Chicka- 
mauga.  News  of  that  battle,  which  was  fought  on  Sept- 
ember 19  and  20,  1863,  came  to  us  by  newspaper  and 
by  the  "grapevine."  Then  came  a  letter  from  Daniel  G. 
Griffin,  commanding  the  Thirty-eighth  Indiana  Volunteers. 
This  letter  was  read  at  the  breakfast  table,  and  every  word 
was  carefully  scanned.  Colonel  Griffin  conceded  that  the 
enemy  had  the  best  of  it.  "But  'twas  to  them  a  dear 
bought  victory."  The  Thirty-eighth  was  in  both  days' 
battle,  right  at  the  front,  under  General  Thomas,  "the  Rock 
of  Chickamauga."  Early  the  first  day  General  Rosecrans 
fled  from  the  field.  On  the  night  of  the  19th  the  Thirty- 
eighth  threw  up  some  breastworks  that  helped  protect 
them  on  the  20th.  "Still,  out  of  330  men  we  lost  no. 
Major  Carter  was  badly  wounded,  but  will  recover."  There 
was  a  long  list  of  the  killed  and  wounded.  The  survivors 
retreated  in  good  order  under  General  Thomas  to  Chatta- 
nooga. "Colonel  Scribner  (the  original  colonel),  not  yet 
promoted,  although  General  Thomas  had  recommended  it, 
commanded  the  brigade.  Thomas  is  the  beau  ideal  of  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland.  General  Grant  and  General 
Sherman  are  here.     We  are  sure  to  end  this  war  soon.     We 

1  See  pages  223-5. 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  R  E  -  E  NL  I  S  T  M  E  N  T  S       269 

expect  to  see  you  here  before  long."  There  were  con- 
gratulations on  winning  the  star,  and  sly  digs  at  Captain 
Babbitt's  convivial  habits.  The  captain  also  had  a  letter 
from  ''Little  Dan."  I  shall  always  remember  one  of 
Babbitt's  remarks:  "I  never  could  understand  how  Dan 
Griffin,  small  in  stature,  who  never  uttered  an  oath  and 
never  took  a  drink  of  whiskey,  had  such  marvelous  com- 
mand over  the  largest  and  roughest  of  men." 

The  fears  of  as  strong  a  man  as  Frank  Surget,  that  if 
he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  his  property  outside  of  the 
Union  lines  would  be  destroyed,  explain  why  my  husband 
had  military  duties  to  perform  while  he  remained  at  Natchez, 
and  also,  with  all  due  deference  to  my  Southern  friends, 
make  it  plain  that  the  war  was  not  prosecuted  from  the 
Southern  side  with  that  consideration  for  the  rights  of 
noncombatants  that  they  would  have  the  historian  always 
believe. 

In  addition  to  the  Confederate  troops  —  General  Joe 
Johnston's  in  Mississippi, — who  were  outside  of  Vicksburg 
when  it  surrendered  in  the  Summer  and  early  Fall  of  1863, 
the  Confederate  government  raised  in  Mississippi  alone 
some  7,000  troops  and  united  them  to  Johnston's  army. 
General  Taylor,  the  son  of  President  Taylor,  was  the  Con- 
federate commander  in  the  Trans- Mississippi  department. 
The  seat  of  the  Louisiana  Confederate  government  under 
Governor  Moore  was  in  the  saddle  in  northern  and  north- 
western Louisiana.  Colonel  Harrison  was  the  active  man 
in  that  region.  Wirt  Adams,  who  had  been  promoted  to  a 
brigadier-generalcy,  September  18,  1863,  and  who  had  com- 
manded a  regiment  of  cavalry  up  to  that  time,  declining 
an  office  in  Mr.  Davis's  cabinet  when  the  Provisional  Con- 
federate Government  was  organized  at  Montgomery,  com- 
manded the  Confederate  forces  in  southern  Mississippi. 
Meridian  and  the  railroads  running  thence  south  and  east 
were  the  source  of  supplies  for  the  Confederate  army, 
except  beef,  and  that  came  from  Texas.  Adams  would 
18 


270         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

threaten  Natchez  and  other  points  on  the  river  and  then  at 
some  unguarded  point  pass  arms  and  ammunition  to  Harri- 
son on  the  west  side  and  receive  cattle  in  return.  At  one 
time  Colonel  Farrar  captured  1,200  Texas  cattle  which  were 
just  on  the  point  of  being  driven  into  the  river  to  swim  to 
the  eastern  side.  They  were  all  turned  over  to  the  United 
States  commissary  for  the  Union  soldiers. 

August  28,  1863,  from  Vicksburg  General  Grant  wrote 
to  General  Crocker  at  Natchez,  "I  want  that  expedition 
against  Harrisonburg  to  start  as  soon  as  possible."  Harri- 
sonburg was  the  county  seat  of  Catahoula  Parish,  Louisiana, 
thirty-five  miles  northwest  of  Natchez  on  the  Black  River. 
In  it  was  Fort  Beauregard,  which  mounted  some  heavy 
guns.  The  expedition  marched  by  way  of  Trinity  on  the 
Tensas  River.  It  consisted  of  two  brigades,  one  composed 
of  four  Illinois  regiments,  the  Fourteenth,  Fifteenth,  Forty- 
sixth  and  Seventy-sixth,  and  Captain  Powell's  battery  of 
the  Second  Illinois  Artillery.  This  brigade  was  commanded 
by  Colonel  Cyrus  Hall  of  the  Sixteenth  Illinois.  The  other 
brigade  was  commanded  by  General  Gresham.  It  con- 
sisted of  the  Twelfth  Wisconsin,  Colonel  George  E.  Bryant; 
the  Fifty-third  Indiana,  Lieutenant- Colonel  William  Jones; 
the  Twenty-eighth  Illinois,  Lieutenant- Colonel  Richard 
Ritter;  the  Thirty-second  Illinois,  Major  George  H.  English; 
and  Spears'  Fifteenth  Ohio  Battery,  commanded  by  Lieu- 
tenant Burdick.  Then  there  was  the  Seventeenth  Illinois 
Infantry,  mounted  as  cavalry. 

There  was  much  marching  and  skirmishing,  and  each 
side  greatly  overestimated  the  numbers  of  the  other.  On 
the  nights  of  the  3d  and  4th  of  September,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  George  W.  Logan,  in  command  of  Fort  Beauregard, 
sent  off  all  the  movable  stores  and  supplies,  spiked  the 
guns,  and  set  fire  to  and  abandoned  the  fort.  He  did  this 
because  his  scouts  reported  that  Colonel  Horace  Randall 
could  not  reinforce  him  and  he  alone  could  not  withstand  a 
siege  by  Crocker's  forces,  which  he  estimated  at  12,000  men. 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  T  M  ENT  S       271 

This  expedition  was  returning  on  the  6th  of  September 
as  I  arrived  at  Natchez.  The  next  morning  I  was  called 
to  the  upper  gallery  of  "Rosalie"  to  witness  a  skirmish  at 
Vidalia  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  where  Colonel 
Farrar  was  in  command  with  only  forty  men  and  some 
negro  troops.  The  negroes  were  not  then  relied  on  as 
soldiers,  as  they  afterwards  fully  proved  themselves  to  be. 
General  Crocker  had  left  his  pontoon  train  to  follow  his 
command  in  from  Trinity.  A  party  of  Confederate  cav- 
alry pursued  it  and  charged  into  Vidalia  as  it  reached  the 
town,  shooting  and  sabering  right  and  left.  Colonel  Farrar, 
with  his  forty  men,  met  them  with  a  counter  charge,  and 
troops  rushed  across  on  the  ferry,  speedily  captured  some 
men,  and  driving  off  the  balance  pursued  them  into  the 
swamps.  It  was  thus  that  I  saw  some  actual  fighting 
during  the  war. 

While  at  Natchez  General  Crocker  at  one  period  had 
12,000  men  under  him.  One  day  I  saw  General  Gresham 
review  5,000  troops.  After  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman 
went  to  Chattanooga  and  Knoxville  the  number  of  Federal 
troops  in  Mississippi  was  greatly  reduced.  General  J.  B. 
McPherson,  who  then  commanded  the  Seventeenth  Army 
Corps,  was  left  in  supreme  command,  with  headquarters 
at  Vicksburg.  Natchez  was  attached  to  the  Vicksburg  dis- 
trict and  General  Crocker  moved  to  Hebron,  Mississippi. 
My  husband  was  one  of  the  men  General  McPherson  relied 
on  in  Mississippi.  They  had  an  excellent  spy  organization. 
I  have  a  letter  General  McPherson  wrote  my  husband  in 
which  he  said:  "Send  your  secret  service  men  out  to  Pearl 
River  and  to  Jackson.  I  have  the  money  to  pay  them." 
McPherson  was  then  at  Vicksburg  and  nearer  to  Jackson 
by  sixty  miles  than  my  husband  at  Natchez.  General 
Gresham  was  able  to  report  the  location  of  most  of  the 
commands  of  General  Johnston's  army,  as  for  instance, 
Loring's  division  at  Can  ton,  General  Jackson's  brigade  at  Jack- 
son, Johnston  himself  at  Meridian;   also  of  the  individual 


272         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

members  of  General  Breckenridge's  staff  and  escort  who 
had  enlisted  from  Adams  County  and  were  home  in  the 
Summer  and  Fall  of  1863,  recruiting.  Years  after  the  war, 
when  I  showed  Lieutenant  A.  R.  ("Tip")  Stanton  some 
of  the  memoranda  my  husband  had  collected,  he  said: 
"He  had  us  located  to  a  man."  Furthermore  he  possessed 
accurate  information  as  to  who  was  supplying  the  Con- 
federates with  information  from  within  our  lines. 

A  few  extracts  from  the  numerous  letters  that  came  to 
me  at  this  time  will  support  my  assertions  and  throw  much 
light  on  conditions  on  the  Mississippi  between  Memphis 
and  Vicksburg  and  Natchez,  and  in  Mississippi: 

Natchez,  Miss., 
November    18,    1863 

I  have  just  received  your  letters  written  at  Memphis,  Cairo, 
and  Louisville,  and  I  assure  you  the  intelligence  that  you  ar- 
rived safe  and  found  the  children  well  has  relieved  me  very  much. 
I  was  getting  very  uneasy.  I  am  sorry  that  mother  is  sick.  I 
know  that  you  will  see  that  she  does  not  suffer. 

I  was  embarking  my  brigade  on  boats  for  Vicksburg  Friday, 
when  the  Rebels  commenced  demonstrating  in  our  rear  and  my 
orders  were  countermanded.  Our  pickets  were  driven  in  with  a 
loss  of  five  and  seven  wounded.  I  think  we  will  leave  here  soon, 
so  I  may  not  see  you  this  winter.  It  would  not  do  for  me  to 
leave  my  command  when  there  are  prospects  of  work  ahead. 

Vicksburg,  Miss., 
November    25,     1863 

We  left  Natchez  Sunday  and  arrived  here  Monday  evening. 
The  navigation  of  the  river  above  Natchez  is  attended  with  more 
peril  than  when  you  were  down  with  us.  The  "Welcome"  was 
fired  into  at  Water  Proof  on  Saturday  and  badly  riddled.  She 
was  struck  over  120  times  with  minie  balls  and  two  shells  exploded 
in  her  cabin.     Fortunately,  no  one  was  hurt. 

Mrs.  Crocker  and  Mrs.  Lanstrance  were  aboard  with  their 
children.  Water  Proof  is  thirty  miles  above  Natchez  on  the 
Louisiana  side.     As  I  came  up  Sunday  I  disembarked  the  Fifty- 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  T  M  E  N  T  S        273 

third  eighteen  miles  below  Water  Proof  by  the  river  and  saw 
Morgan  land  below.  We  went  up  on  the  run,  hoping  to  gobble 
the  rebel  force,  but  we  were  not  fleet  enough.  We  captured  nine 
men  and  seventy  odd  wheels  and  horses,  and  gave  the  party  a 
good  chase.  They  had  three  cannon  and  would  have  fired  on  us 
and  destroyed  many  lives  if  I  had  not  marched  across  the  land 
and  driven  them  off  before  the  boats  arrived. 

Colonel  Johnson  takes  command  of  the  port  of  Natchez  with 
his  regiment,  the  Twenty-eighth  Illinois,  which  is  detached  from 
my  command,  the  Thirtieth  Missouri,  and  two  negro  regiments. 
The  Twenty-third  Indiana  is  at  Big  Black,  and  while  it  is  not  fully 
determined  that  I  am  to  take  that  regiment  in  place  of  the  Twenty- 
eighth,  I  do  not  think  there  is  much  doubt  of  it.  General  McPher- 
son  says  I  can  have  it  if  I  want  it.  It  would  suit  the  Fifty-third 
and  the  Twenty-third  very  well  to  be  together,  and  then  I  would 
like  to  get  an  Indiana  regiment  when  opportunity  offers. 

I  tried  to  slip  off  at  Natchez  but  failed,  and  was  besieged  by 
men  and  women  to  stay.  Mrs.  Marshall  cried  at  my  going.  Gen- 
eral Crocker  is  here.  General  Smith  is  still  at  Natchez  with  his 
brigade,  but  he  will  soon  come  up.  One  of  his  colonels,  Brown  of 
the  Third  Iowa,  has  preferred  charges  against  him.  I  think  he 
will  go  the  way  of  many  other  generals,  on  the  shelf.  You  formed 
.a  very  correct  opinion  of  him  at  first  sight.  I  think  you  are  a  very 
good  judge  of  character. 

I  received  your  letter  of  the  nth  inst.  the  day  I  left  Natchez. 
Mr.  Lownes  of  the  "Benton"  handed  it  to  me.  He  says  that 
Captain  Grant  of  the  "New  National"  told  him  that  you  capti- 
vated every  one  on  the  boat  going  up  to  Cairo.  I  am  always 
pleased  to  hear  you  are  making  friends. 

Cannot  say  how  long  we  will  remain  here,  but  think  we  will 
move  out  to  Big  Black  soon.  General  McPherson  says  he  thinks 
he  will  send  me  on  an  expedition  to  Louisiana  that  will  require 
ten  days  and  require  some  fighting.  I  will  know  the  day  after 
to-morrow.  We  will  likely  remain  here  or  at  Big  Black  until 
spring. 

VlCKSBURG,    MlSS., 

December  4,  1863 
I  am  now  embarking  with  700  cavalry  and  two  regiments  of 
infantry  for  a  raid.     I  also  have  one  section  of  artillery.     I  will 


274         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

disembark  at  Rodney,  strike  out  through  the  country,  and  come 
in  at  Fort  Adams  or  Natchez;  then  I  will  cross  the  river  and  go 
up  on  the  Louisiana  side.  I  may  have  warm  work.  I  will  write 
again  on  my  return. 

Previous  to  the  writing  of  this  letter  Confederate  sym- 
pathizers, scouts,  or  spies  had  conveyed  the  information  to 
the  Confederate  headquarters  at  Jackson  that  the  garrison 
at  Natchez,  aside  from  the  negroes,  was  down  to  only  800 
troops.  Up  to  that  time  the  negro  troops  had  not  been 
tested.  The  night  this  letter  was  written  a  Union  spy 
walked  into  General  McPherson's  headquarters  in  Vicks- 
burg  with  the  intelligence  that  General  Wirt  Adams  with 
a  strong  column  of  cavalry  and  artillery  was  moving  on 
Natchez.  Had  Adams  succeeded  in  capturing  Natchez,  a 
Southern  gentleman  said  to  me  afterwards,  Fort  Pillow 
would  probably  have  been  anticipated.  There  were  then  in 
Natchez  1,200  negro  troops.  But  Captain  Allen  T.  Bowie, 
General  Adams's  acljutant-general,  a  citizen  of  Natchez, 
and  a  most  accomplished  gentleman,  who  served  his  cause 
loyally  from  the  first  shot  at  Sumter  until  the  surrender, 
tells  me  the  Southern  gentleman  was  mistaken  about  Fort 
Pillow  being  anticipated  had  Natchez  been  taken;  that  he' 
understood  Adams's  instructions  were  to  divert  the  enemy's 
attention  from  Greenville,  Mississippi,  at  which  point  it 
had  been  planned  to  cross  the  river  with  ammunition  for 
the  Trans-Mississippi  army;  that  it  never  was  the  inten- 
tion to  attack  Natchez  but  to  go  to  Ellis  Cliffs,  a  high  point 
seventeen  miles  below  Natchez  overlooking  the  Mississippi, 
and  fire  on  passing  boats.  Adams  County,  of  which  Natchez 
was  the  county  seat,  was  the  home  of  many  in  Adams's 
command.  ''Still,"  said  Captain  Bowie,  "I  didn't  actually 
know  what  were  my  general's  orders  or  his  ultimate  plans." 

At  11:15  p.  m.  of  the  day  the  last  letter  I  have  quoted 
was  written  to  me,  General  McPherson  issued  this  written 
order  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Currie,  commanding  the  Ma- 
rine Brigade: 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  T  M  E  N  T  S       275 

You  will  proceed  immediately  on  the  expedition  in  command 
of  Brigadier-General  Gresham,  nor  will  you  delay  the  departure 
of  his  troops  one  moment.  Take  your  orders  from  General  Gres- 
ham. Let  no  delay  on  your  part  defeat  the  object  of  the  expe- 
dition. 

At  3  a.  m.  of  the  5th,  the  Gresham  expedition,  with  Fort 
Adams  as  its  objective,  was  off.  Stopping  at  Rodney  for 
information,  it  was  in  Natchez  by  noon,  a  full  half-day 
before  Adams  could  reach  there.  Soon  Adams  had  knowl- 
edge of  the  reinforcements  going  to  Natchez. 

The  smoke  of  the  steamboats,  Captain  Bowie  said,  was 
the  first  information  the  scouts  brought.  "Had  General 
Adams  really  intended  to  take  Natchez  we  could  have 
been  there  before  the  reinforcements  could  have  arrived, 
for  we  proceeded  with  a  wagon  train  and  by  easy  marches." 
Marching  into  Fayette  County  the  Adams  column  camped 
the  first  night  at  "Travelers  Rest"  plantation,  eleven  miles 
southeast  of  Washington,  the  early  capital  of  Mississippi 
lying  six  miles  east  of  Natchez.  The  next  morning  Gener- 
al Adams  went  into  Washington.  Failing  to  come  on  and 
attack  Natchez,  General  Gresham  said  that  he  "started  after 
Adams."  Sending  the  Marine  Brigade,  as  it  was  called, 
northeast  on  the  Pine  Ridge  Road,  he  took  the  Washington 
Road,  due  east  out  of  Natchez,  with  the  infantry,  artillery, 
and  cavalry.  Near  Washington  he  met  Colonel  Farrar, 
who  had  come  over  from  Vidalia  with  his  300  cavalry  and 
was  scouting  after  Adams.  Learning  from  Farrar  that 
Adams  with  his  whole  command  had  passed  through  Wash- 
ington, going  south  for  Ellis  Cliffs,  seventeen  miles  south 
of  Natchez  on  the  Mississippi,  presumably  to  fire  on  passing 
steamboats,  Colonel  Farrar  was  placed  in  command  of  all 
the  cavalry  and  started  in  pursuit. 

Taking  the  road  that  leads  from  Washington  to  the 
Lower  Kingston  Road,  thence  down  the  Kingston  Road 
past  Hedges,  at  8  p.  m.  the  Union  column  went  into  camp 
between  the  "Cherry  Grove"  plantation  on  the  Kingston 


276         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Road  and  the  "Beaux  Pres"  plantation  on  the  Egypt  Road. 
At  Hedges,  as  he  passed,  Adams  had  burned  the  gin  of 
A.  S.  Merrill  of  "Elmscourt,"  as  a  warning  to  Mr.  Merrill 
that  he  should  return  to  his  allegiance.  Adams  was  also 
said  to  have  ordered  Colonel  J.  S.  Binghaman's  plantation 
and  "Richmond,"  the  home  of  Levin  R.  Marshall,  burned, 
but  the  details  he  sent  for  that  purpose  were  driven  off;  as 
to  this,  however,  Captain  Bowie  tells  me  my  husband  was 
wrongfully  informed,  and  that  there  never  was  any  purpose 
on  General  Adams's  part  to  burn  either  Colonel  Bingha- 
man's place  or  "Richmond." 

James  Surget,  the  owner  of  "Linwood,"  was  not  then  at 
home,  while  Robert  Young,  the  owner  of  "Beaux  Pres," 
was  in  the  Confederate  army.  At  9  p.  m.  Colonel  Farrar 
and  his  cavalry  reached  Beverly,  where  the  Kingston  and 
Ellis  Cliffs  Road  crosses  the  Natchez  and  Woodville  Road 
at  right  angles.  Adams  reached  Ellis  Cliffs  with  part  of 
his  command  but  did  not  tarry  to  fire  at  any  passing  steam- 
boats. He  marched  thence  with  the  major  part  of  his 
command  northwest  three  miles  to  "Laurel  Hill"  planta- 
tion on  the  Woodville  Road  and  two  miles  north  of  Beverly. 
The  road  between  Ellis  Cliffs  and  "Laurel  Hill,"  winding 
through  very  narrow  cuts  and  with  almost  perpendicular 
ascents,  was  no  place  for  artillery.  Said  Sergeant  Lindsay 
in  1 9 16,  "We  kept  the  artillery  on  the  road  between  Beverly 
and  Ellis  Cliffs,  where  it  could  readily  move  east." 

The  mansion  at  "Laurel  Hill,"  built  in  Spanish  days,  on 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  sites  in  the  Mississippi  valley,  is 
still  standing  in  a  good  state  of  preservation.  It  belonged 
to  Doctor  Mercer,  a  gentleman  who  visited  my  husband  at 
"Rosalie,"  and  in  December,  1863,  was  occupied  by  William 
Shields,  lieutenant-commander  in  the  United  States  Navy, 
retired.  "Captain  Shields  gave  us  an  elegant  dinner," 
said  Captain  Bowie,  "for  which  I  gave  him  an  order,  that 
it  might  appear,  should  General  Gresham  come  along,  that 
it  was  not  voluntary." 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  R  E  -  E  NL  I  S  TM  EN  T  S         277 

At  midnight  General  Gresham  learned  of  the  positions 
of  Farrar  and  Adams.  Could  Farrar  hold  Beverly,  Adams's 
retreat  to  the  south  or  east  was  cut  off.  Sending  Farrar 
word  to  hold  the  crossroads  if  possible,  at  3  a.  m.  the  Gres- 
ham column  was  on  the  march,  and  although,  as  he  wrote 
me,  "I  marched  my  men  unmercifully,  I  was  unable  to 
make  the  crossroads  at  Beverly  before  Adams  forced  Far- 
rar to  fall  back."  The  Gresham  command  left  the  Egypt 
Road  at  Mitchel's  Ford,  crossing  Second  Creek  at  that 
point,  thence  down  the  Independence  Road,  through  "Inde- 
pendence" plantation,  and  when  within  two  miles  of  Beverly 
but  still  on  the  Independence  Road  and  north  of  its  junction 
with  the  east  and  west  road  through  Beverly  to  Kingston, 
they  met  Colonel  Farrar  falling  back,  skirmishing  with  the 
enemy.  Adams  had  dismounted  most  of  his  cavalry  and 
cut  across  the  country  in  addition  to  pressing  Farrar  on  the 
road  into  Beverly.  Sergeant  Lindsay  of  General  Adams's 
artillery,  still  hale  and  hearty  at  seventy -five,  in  1916 
related  to  me  this  skirmish  as  he  saw  it: 

"The  night  before  the  skirmish  we  rested  on  our  arms 
in  the  road  between  Ellis  Cliffs  and  Beverly;  long  before 
daylight  we  were  on  the  move,  and  at  daylight  opened  on 
the  Federal  cavalry  at  Beverly,  preceding  the  advance  of 
the  Eleventh  and  Seventeenth  Arkansas  under  Colonel 
Griffith,  dismounted  and  thrown  out  as  skirmishers.  Mean- 
time, Colonel  Dumontiel  of  the  Fourteenth  Confederate 
Cavalry  under  orders  pressed  the  enemy's  left  flank.  The 
Wirt  Adams  regiment,  the  wagon  train,  and  the  rear  guard 
followed." 

In  this  skirmish  between  Farrar  and  Adams,  two  men 
were  killed  and  four  wounded,  one  of  the  wounded  being 
Captain  Waullow  of  the  Fourth  Illinois.  What  was  then 
an  open  cultivated  country  is  now,  owing  to  the  boll  weevil 
and  other  causes,  largely  abandoned  as  farming  land. 
Second  growth  timber  pines  are  taking  the  place  of  the 
native  trees. 


278         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Doctor  Scott  owned  "Independence"  plantation.  On 
it  were  about  forty  negro  slaves,  many  of  whom  had  been 
brought  from  Forrest  Home  twenty  miles  up  in  Jefferson 
County  when  the  war  first  began.  One  of  them,  a  very  in- 
telligent colored  man,  Charles  Wood,  whom  Captain  John 
F.  Jenkins  had  known  from  boyhood,  witnessed  the  cavalry 
skirmish  and  helped  bury  one  of  the  Yankee  soldiers  where 
he  fell,  "face  downward,  so  he  could  not  scratch  out." 
"Many  of  the  negroes  were  still  loyal  and  gave  us  infor- 
mation the  same  as  they  did  to  the  Yankees,"  said  Captain 
Bowie. 

Adams  then  being  in  possession  of  the  junction  of  the 
Independence  and  Kingston  roads,  and  having  his  line  of 
retreat  open  to  the  east,  a  retreat  was  sounded  in  order  to 
decoy  him  north  of  Second  Creek,  with  a  view  to  turning 
on  him  while  he  would  be  in  the  low  bottoms  north  of 
Second  Creek.  The  cannon  was  planted  in  a  thicket  below 
the  mansion  at  "Beaux  Pres,"  since  burned,  so  as  to  sweep 
the  bottom  and  the  ford.  But  Adams  would  not  cross.  He 
retreated  to  Kingston,  and  thence  to  Meadville.  Captain 
Bowie  'said,  "We  knew  of  the  masked  battery.  We  did 
not  want  to  charge  over  ground  that  our  enemy  had  chosen, 
and  besides,  the  object  of  our  expedition  had  been  accom- 
plished, as  I  believed." 

In  his  report  to  General  McPherson,  General  Gresham 
said:  "General  Adams  has  two  ten-pound  Parrot  guns, 
four  six-pound  rifle  guns,  and  four  twelve-pounders,  and 
at  least  2,500  men  —  perhaps  more  —  that  much  you  can 
rely  on.  Doctor  Lyle  of  this  place  saw  Adams  Saturday 
and  talked  with  him,  and  counted  ten  pieces  of  artillery. 
He  described  the  artillery  and  the  men  as  above."  Doctor 
Lyle  was  then  and  long  afterward  one  of  the  leading  phys- 
icians of  Natchez,  and  never  was  there  any  question  in 
Natchez  of  his  loyalty  to  the  Confederacy  until,  years 
afterwards,  I  showed  in  Natchez  a  copy  of  this  report  to 
General  McPherson. 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  T  M  E  N  T  S        279 

Doctor  Lyle  had  been  with  the  Confederates  at  Shiloh  as 
a  surgeon.  He  probably  had  seen  enough  of  war.  He  and 
every  man,  especially  any  ex-Confederate,  and  there  were 
several  in  and  about  Natchez  who  had  been  incapacitated 
for  the  field  by  wounds,  were  always  welcome  at  head- 
quarters at  "Rosalie."  There  was  the  cigar  and  the  toddy 
to  the  Southern  man's  taste,  and  no  man  could  be  more 
cordial  and  considerate  of  the  sensibilities  of  his  guests  than 
my  husband.  At  that  time  he  considered  he  was  fortunate 
in  being  able  to  show  by  his  conduct  ' '  that  a  return  to  their 
former  allegiance  involved  no  humiliation."  Besides,  there 
were  McPherson's  instructions  and  money  to  pay  all  bills. 
What  kind  of  vouchers  ultimately  went  into  the  Treasury 
Department  some  other  historian  than  I  must  write  of. 
So  if  the  good  doctor  yielded  to  his  impulses  and  gave  or 
got  information  for  the  Yankees'  general,  he  must  not 
be  censured  for  helping  end  a  cause  which  he  knew  was 
bound  to  be  lost  and  which  he  may  have  regarded  with 
misgivings  even  before  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg. 

That  Doctor  Lyle  was  met  in  the  public  road  south  of 
Washington  by  General  Adams's  command  at  or  about  the 
time  stated  in  the  report  to  General  McPherson,  Captain 
Bowie  says  is  true.  Furthermore,  Bowie  says  that  he  re- 
quired two  Confederate  troopers  to  restore  the  horses  that 
these  two  soldiers  were  taking  from  the  good  doctor.  Cap- 
tain Bowie  had  known  the  doctor  before  the  war  and  kept 
up  the  acquaintance  until  his  death. 

But  the  accuracy  of  the  doctor's  report  Captain  Bowie 
questions.  "Wirt  Adams  had  but  six  efficient  guns."  A 
section  of  King's  mounted  artillery  was  commanded  by 
Lieutenant  Johnson  and  Sergeant  George  W.  Lindsay.  In 
March,  19 16,  Sergeant  Lindsay  said:  "My  recollection  is 
we  had  eight  guns." 

Continuing,  Captain  Bowie  said:  "We  had  1,700  or 
1,800  men  —  the  original  Wirt  Adams  regiment,  then  called 
the  Wood  regiment  and  commanded  by  Colonel  R.  C.  Wood. 


280         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

I  remember  Colonel  Dumontiel  commanded  the  Fourteenth 
Confederate  Cavalry.  Colonel  Griffith  commanded  two 
regiments  of  Arkansas  mounted  infantry,  the  Eleventh  and 
Seventeenth  consolidated  into  one.  Before  being  mounted 
these  regiments  had  carried  positions  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  and  although  mounted  retained  the  same  arms 
and  accoutrements,  even  their  drums  for  camp  signals. 
They  were  mounted  infantry  in  every  sense  of  the  term. 
Our  troops  were  seasoned  veterans,  the  remnants  of  the 
flower  of  the  Confederate  calvary,  and  -our  general  a  brave, 
capable,  and  experienced  leader."  Captain  Bowie  con- 
cluded with  a  statement  that  is  undoubtedly  true  of  both 
sides:  "Many  details  and  orders  never  were  recorded  and 
the  records  of  many  others  were  destroyed." 

To  illustrate  what  a  scout  or  spy  could  do,  Sergeant 
Lindsay,  while  on  a  leave  of  absence  from  Wirt  Adams's 
command,  went  into  Natchez,  stayed  all  night  with  a  good 
Confederate  family,  the  Holdens,  and  the  next  morning 
called  on  the  Yankee  provost-marshal  and  secured  a  pass 
out  of  Natchez.  He  represented  to  the  provost-marshal 
that  he  was  a  Missourian  who  had  been  caught  in  Missis- 
sippi when  the  war  began  and  could  not  get  out,  that  he 
had  escaped  conscription  by  taking  to  the  swamps  when 
the  drafting  officers  came  about.  Armed  with  his  pass, 
Lindsay  hired  a  horse  and  buggy  from  Joe  Bontura,  drove 
out  in  good  style  and  carried  with  him  a  lot  of  medicines, 
contraband  of  war.  (After  the  war  Lindsay  returned  to 
Bontura  his  buggy  and  another  horse.)  A  few  days  later, 
while  stopping  with  a  friend  near  Kingston,  Lindsay  learned 
that  three  Confederate  deserters,  "Jayhawkers,"  were  in 
his  vicinity.  These  men  had  stolen  a  lot  of  horses  and 
negroes  and  were  making  for  Georgia  for  the  purpose  of 
selling  them.  The  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  not 
yet  in  effect  in  Georgia.  One  of  these  "Jayhawkers,"  John 
Benton,  previously  married  to  six  Mississippi  women  and 
who  had  but  recently  at  Woodville  married  his  seventh  wife, 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE-ENLISTMENTS        281 

was  making  his  boast  that  before  the  war  closed  he  would 
have  a  wife  in  every  county  in  Mississippi.  With  the  aid 
of  a  single  man  Lindsay  surprised  these  "Jayhawkers"  as 
they  were  crossing  Second  Creek,  making  for  the  Homo- 
chitto  Swamps,  killed  them  and  restored  the  stolen  property 
to  the  owners. 

"General  Gresham  heard  of  the  affair,"  said  Sergeant 
Lindsay  in  19 16.  "He  sent  me  word  I  had  rendered  a  ser- 
vice to  both  sides,  that  he  had  heard  I  was  short  of  clothes, 
and  if  I  would  come  to  Natchez  he  would  have  made  for 
me  a  brand  new  Confederate  uniform  and  provide  a  safe 
conduct  in  and  out,  which  was  evidenced  by  a  pass.  Al- 
though I  had  no  doubt,  from  what  I  had  heard  of  him, 
of  his  good  faith,  I  feared  I  might  be  misunderstood  if 
I  accepted  his  offer.  Besides,  I  was  operating  without 
orders  and  might  meet  a  court  martial  on  my  return  to  my 
command;  but  on  the  contrary,  I  received  the  same  com- 
mendation from  General  Adams  that  I  had  from  General 
Gresham,  for  whom  I  always  had  a  great  admiration,  and 
it  has  been  one  of  my  regrets  that  I  never  met  him.  I 
never  regarded  him  as  a  'Yankee.'" 

This  incident  of  Sergeant  Lindsay  will  at  least  tend  to 
explain  why  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  while  still  on  crutches, 
said,  ' '  I  will  swap  a  carpet-bagger  or  a  scalawag  for  a  good 
Confederate  soldier  any  day."1  By  this  I  do  not  mean  to 
condemn  all  men  who  went  South  or  settled  in  the  South 
after  the  war. 

Headquarters,  United  States  Forces, 

Natchez,  December  26,  1863 

Christmas  is  over,  but  it  is  holiday  here  yet.  I  was  very 
busy  yesterday,  as  usual.    .    .    . 

I  can't  say  that  I  had  a  merry  Christmas,  for  I  felt  that  I 
ought  to  be  at  home.  Since  I  entered  the  service  I  have  never 
felt  so  blue  at  being  separated  from  you  and  the  children  as  I 
did  yesterday.     I  hope  it  was  not  the  case  with  you.     I  do  not 

1  Introductory,  page  xxi. 


282  LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

understand  why  you  don't  come  to  me  when  the  opportunity 
is  afforded. 

I  went  out  to  Mr.  Sam  Davis'  yesterday  at  4  p.  m.  to  dine. 
The  party  consisted  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Davis,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Page 
and  the  two  Miss  Pages,  Doctor  Carter,  Mr.  Sargent,  Mr. 
Elijah  Smith,  Captain  Babbitt  and  myself.  It  was  the  finest 
dinner  I  ever  sat  down  to.  I  saw  Judge  McMurran  to-day  and 
he  and  Mrs.  McMurran  desire  to  be  remembered  to  you.  I 
don't  go  out  much  for  several  reasons,  the  main  one  of  which  is 
because  I  have  no  time. 

I  neglected  to  say  that  Mrs.  Page  sends  her  kindest  regards 
to  you.  I  am  at-  her  home  more  frequently  than  at  any  other 
place.  She  informed  me  this  morning  that  she  would  present 
me  with  a  pair  of  elegant  slippers  as  a  New  Year's  present,  the 
work  of  her  own  hands. 

I  wrote  you  a  week  or  more  ago  to  come  down,  if  you  wished 
to.  The  navigation  of  the  river  is  not  so  perilous  now  as  it  was 
some  time  back.  If  you  have  not  started  before  this  reaches 
you,  I  will  still  say,  do  as  you  think  best  about  bringing  the 
children.  I  would  like  to  see  them,  but  I  don't  like  to  ask  you 
to  bring  them  along,  for  fear  something  might  happen. 

A  later  letter  from  Vicksburg  began  with  this  sentence: 
"A  boat  was  fired  on  at  Rodney  yesterday  and  two  women 
killed."  It  closed  with  an  intimation  that  I  did  not  have  a 
very  great  affection  for  my  husband  when  I  neglected  an 
opportunity  to  come  to  him  when  he  could  not  get  home. 

Running  the  gantlet  from  Memphis  to  Natchez  on  a 
frail  Mississippi  River  steamboat  did  not  seem  to  me  an 
ideal  opportunity  to  visit  my  husband,  but  finally,  on  the 
last  day  of  January,  1864,  I  mustered  up  my  courage,  took 
my  two  children,  and  went  from  New  Albany  by  rail  to 
Cairo,  thence  to  Memphis  by  a  steamboat,  and  there  late 
in  the  afternoon  transferred  to  another  boat.  Memphis 
was  out  of  sight  when  I  discovered  our  boat  was  loaded  to 
the  guards,  as  the  saying  is,  with  powder  and  ammunition. 
The  cargo  was  in  the  hold  and  I  saw  no  evidence  of  it  when 
I  went  on  the  boat. 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  TM  E  NT  S         283 

In  those  days  it  seemed  a  legitimate  act  of  war  to 
prevent  ammunition  getting  to  the  Yankee  soldiers.  Per- 
haps because  the  Rebels  were  shooting  from  the  bank  there 
was  no  representation  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  part  to  the  President 
of  the  Confederate  States  of  America,  that  the  latter  was 
not  making  war  according  to  the  ancient  humane  rules  of 
warfare.  While  the  Confederates  did  not  discriminate 
between  boats  carrying  ammunition  and  those  that  did 
not,  still  as  their  spies  endeavored  to  send  advance  infor- 
mation as  to  the  boats  carrying  ammunition,  the  hazards 
were  immeasurably  greater  on  the  former  than  on  the 
latter.  '  On  a  boat  without  ammunition  one  might  get 
through.  With  my  knowledge  of  conditions  on  the  Missis- 
sippi at  that  time,  let  no  one  believe  I  would  have  gone  on 
that  boat  at  Memphis  had  I  known  it  was  loaded  with 
ammunition. 

We  ate  supper  by  dim  lights  and  then  all  lights  were 
extinguished.  "I  expect  to  be  fired  on  to-night,"  the 
captain  said.  I  put  my  children  to  bed  with  their  clothes 
on  and  sat  in  the  cabin  by  their  stateroom  door.  I  could 
hear  the  throb  of  the  engines  as  the  boat  was  crowded  to 
her  utmost  speed,  as  I  had  heard  the  captain  say  he  would 
do,  to  get  through. 

The  boat  ahead  of  us  was  fired  into  and  sunk,  and  the 
boat  behind  us  was  riddled,  but  we  went  through  without 
even  a  shot  being  fired  at  us.  At  the  landing  at  Vicksburg 
I  was  met  by  Mr.  James  Doll  of  New  Albany,  who  told  me 
my  husband  was  on  what  was  called  the  Meridian  Expedi- 
tion. Mr.  Doll  was  then  conducting  a  sutlers'  store  in 
Vicksburg.  From  the  note  Mr.  Doll  handed  me  from  my 
husband,  dated  Vicksburg,  January  25,  1864,  I  quote: 

I  arrived  here  yesterday  with  part  of  my  command,  the 
Twelfth  Wisconsin  and  the  Thirty-second  Illinois,  to  join  an 
expedition  eastward.  We  may  have  a  good  time  and  we 
may  not.  We  go  strong  enough  to  take  care  of  ourselves 
almost  anywhere. 


284         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Meanwhile,  I  went  to  board  at  the  house  at  which  Mrs. 
Davis,  the  wife  of  the  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Twenty- 
third  Indiana,  with  her  children,  was  stopping.  I  was 
there  several  weeks.  The  cannonball  holes  were  still  in 
the  houses,  and  the  children  played  in  the  caves  that  the 
people  made  during  the  siege.  I  remember  one  morning 
when  we  got  up,  the  hills  were  fringed  with  snow,  an  unusual 
sight  for  Vicksburg. 

General  Sherman's  army  comprised  20,000  men,  —  two 
divisions  under  General  Hurlbut,  who-  came  down  from 
Memphis,  and  two  divisions  under  General  McPherson. 
One  of  McPherson' s  divisions  was  commanded  by  General 
Crocker.  In  Crocker's  division  General  Gresham  com- 
manded a  brigade.  General  Sooey  Smith  was  to  move 
from  Memphis  to  Meridian  with  7,000  cavalry  and  de- 
feat Forrest  on  the  way.  General  Smith  failed  to  defeat 
Forrest  and  never  reached  Meridian,  but  otherwise  the 
expedition  was  a  success.  Out  and  back,  they  marched 
from  370  to  400  miles. 

The  purpose  of  the  Meridian  Expedition  was  to  de- 
stroy the  supplies  and  foundries  at  Meridian,  150  miles 
east  of  Vicksburg,  at  the  junction  of  the  Mobile  and 
Ohio  Railroad  and  the  Vicksburg  and  Selma  Railroad,  also 
the  railroads  north  and  south,  and  east  and  west  of 
Meridian,  as  well  as  all  personal  property  that  had  been 
and  could  be  of  any  possible  use  to  sustain  an  army  in  the 
field.  General  Sherman's  destruction  of  private  property 
the  Southern  people  never  could  understand.  On  the 
other  hand,  to  fire  into  steamboats  on  the  Mississippi 
without  first  ascertaining  whether  they  were  carrying  arms 
to  the  enemy,  to  say  nothing  of  giving  the  passengers  an 
opportunity  to  get  off,  was  a  departure  from  the  previous 
rules  of  war. 

That  the  work  of  destruction  and  devastation,  in  which 
I  have  heard  my  husband  repeatedly  declare  he  had  no 
heart,  was  most  thoroughly  done,  I  afterwards  learned  from 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  ENLI  S  TM  ENT  S        285 

many  of  the  Southern  people.  It  was  perhaps  more  com-, 
plete  than  was  visited  on  other  sections  of  the  country 
during  the  war.  I  heard  the  discussion  afterwards  and 
saw  many  of  the  orders,  which  were  most  specific,  to  destroy 
everything,  even  of  a  private  nature,  that  could  be  used 
by  the  enemy.1 

As  they  returned  from  the  Meridian  Expedition,  my 
husband  sent  for  me  to  meet  him  at  General  Crocker's 
headquarters  at  Hebron  on  Black  River,  nine  miles  north- 
east of  Vicksburg.  I  left  Vicksburg  March  4,  1864,  with 
my  children,  in  an  ambulance  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, expecting  to  reach  General  Crocker's  headquarters  at 
early  noon.  Instead,  it  was  five  o'clock  in  the  evening  when 
we  arrived  there.  Soon  after  leaving  Vicksburg  we  met  the 
head  of  a  column  of  10,000  "  contraband  "  negroes,  as  they 
were  called,  moving  to  Vicksburg.  At  times  the  crowds 
would  be  so  dense  that  we  would  be  compelled  to  drive  into 
the  fields ;  then  there  would  be  a  break  and  we  would  drive 
on  perhaps  a  half  mile  or  more,  when  the  throng  would 
block  the  road  and  we  would  be  forced  to  the  side.  They 
seemed  to  sweep  the  earth. 

It  would  be  invaluable  now  to  have  photographs  of  those 
scenes.  The  blacks  were  in  all  kinds  of  vehicles,  family 
carriages,  farm  wagons,  sutler  wagons,  on  horseback,  on 
mules,  on  oxen,  and  on  foot.  What  was  once  a  handsome 
family  carriage  would  be  drawn  by  a  horse  and  a  mule,  or 
a  mule  and  an  ox.  One  colored  woman  had  on  a  French 
bonnet,  another  a  Paisley  shawl,  another  had  a  lace  parasol, 
and  many  had  some  admired  article  of  some  woman  of 
affluence.  Some  of  the  men  wore  silk  hats  yet  were  with- 
out coats ;  all  showed  unmistakable  evidences  of  the  ravages 

1  I  quote  from  W.  Q.  Gresham's  report  to  General  Crocker,  commanding  the  Fourth 
Division,  Seventeenth  Army  Corps.  This  report  went  to  General  Sherman  finally.  "Two 
miles  south  of  Quitman  I  destroyed  a  large  covered  railroad  bridge  over  the  Chickasha,  210  feet 
long.  At  the  same  place  I  destroyed  1,700  feet  of  trestle  from  10  to  30  feet  high.  I  also 
destroyed  all  the  bridges  and  trestles  over  Alligator  Swamp,  which  were  a  mile  and  a  half  in 
length  and  from  n  to  32  feet  high.  For  two  miles  north  of  Alligator  Swamp  I  destroyed  the 
road,  burning  the  ties,  and  heating  and  bending  the  rails." 

19 


286         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  war.  Many  of  the  sutler  wagons  were  loaded  to  over- 
flowing with  pickaninnies. 

We  were  welcomed  by  General  Crocker  in  the  Hebron 
mansion,  which  he  occupied  as  his  headquarters.  It  was 
a  double  house  in  the  Colonial  style,  with  a  wide  gallery 
and  the  conventional  columns  in  front.  One  half  of  it 
General  Crocker  had  assigned  to  my  husband  and  his  staff. 
Hebron  proper  was  a  store  and  postoffice  a  mile  and  a  half 
away.  Black  River  was  a  couple  of  miles  east,  and  the 
point  where  the  Vicksburg  &  Jackson  Railroad  crossed 
Black  River  was  several  miles  southeast.  There  were 
military  roads  and  camps  in  every  direction.  Fifty  years 
later,  when  I  visited  Hebron,  only  the  ruins  of  the  mansion 
remained.  To  every  soldier  in  Sherman's  army  Hebron  was 
a  well-known  place. 

Within  an  hour  after  being  greeted  by  General  Crocker, 
I  was  called  out  to  meet  my  husband  riding  at  the  head  of 
a  party  returning  from  " their  raid,"  as  Captain  Babbitt 
called  it.  It  was  a  happy  party.  My  husband  was  always 
fond  of  a  joke  "on  the  other  fellow."  He  deprecated  all 
wanton  foraging,  against  which  General  McPherson  had 
issued  strict  orders.  And  when  Babbitt  drew  attention  to 
the  fact  that  there  was  an  onion  in  General  Gresham's 
coat-tail  pocket  —  which  Babbitt  had  slipped  in  as  they 
dismounted  from  their  horses  —  my  husband  was  palpably 
annoyed.  Onions  were  a  luxury  at  that  time  in  Sherman's 
army. 

That  evening  we  were  all  General  Crocker's  guests  for 
dinner,  at  which  the  talk  was  about  the  war.  After  dinner 
the  General  directed  the  conversation  by  saying:  "Mrs. 
Gresham  witnessed  a  sight  to-day  she  will  never  forget." 
General  Crocker  was  as  much  a  master  of  his  profession  — 
the  law — as  Grant  and  Sherman  were  of  theirs.  His 
strong  legal  mind  made  things  clear  to  the  average  mind. 
He  had  newspapers,  Congressional  records,  and  all  kinds 
of    political    pamphlets.     "That    Thirteenth    Amendment 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE-ENLISTMENTS        287 

which  my  Iowa  man  started  through  the  House  [James  F. 
Wilson,  December  14,  1863]  has  been  reported  favorably 
by  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Senate  [February  10, 
1864]  and  will  undoubtedly  pass  that  body  by  the  requisite 
two-thirds,  but  what  do  you  men  from  Indiana  think  when 
I  tell  you  that  dough-faced  senator  of  yours  is  opposed  to 
making  the  negroes,  in  theory  as  they  are  in  fact,  free?" 
Democrat  that  he  always  was,  Marcus  M.  Crocker  was 
particularly  severe  on  Thomas  A.  Hendricks.  Chafing  at 
his  physical  disability,  tuberculosis,  which  had  kept  him 
from  going  to  Meridian,  he  gave  full  rein  to  the  violence  of 
his  language.  He  had  written  to  and  had  letters  from 
James  F.  Wilson. 

On  the  military  side  General  Crocker,  according  to 
General  Grant,  was  one  of  the  volunteers  who  was  fit  to 
command  a  corps  or  army;  on  the  civil  side,  he  must  have 
been  one  of  the  men  Mr.  Lincoln  had  in  mind,  "fit  for 
any  position."  When  the  war  broke  out,  he  was  a  leading 
lawyer  of  Des  Moines.  Always  a  Democrat  in  politics  ex- 
cept as  to  prosecuting  the  war  to  a  finish,  General  Crocker 
opposed  visiting  the  pains  and  penalties  of  treason  on  the 
Southern  people  and  was  emphatic  that  the  negro  should 
be  kept  on  the  plantations.  He  was  for  making  the  f reed- 
men  citizens  but  not  voters. 

The  discussion  went  on  until  a  late  hour.  That  there 
would  be  bitterness  and  resentment  toward  the  blacks,  that 
it  was  a  misfortune  for  them  to  leave  the  plantations,  that 
many  would  become  drones  and  vagabonds,  that  they  must 
for  a  time  be  the  wards  of  a  nation,  and  that  they  should 
be  made  citizens  with  the  right  to  sue  and  testify  in  court, 
all  were  agreed,  but  that  the  men  of  that  motley  crew  should 
be  given  the  ballot,  not  a  single  man  who  was  present  that 
evening  suggested,  and  when  it  was  later  proposed,  these 
men  were  against  it.  The  denunciation  of  Senator  Thomas 
A.  Hendricks  of  Indiana  then  and  later  was  the  most  bitter 
and  severe  I  ever  heard.     Of  charming  personality,  forcible, 


2&%         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

an  accomplished  debater  and  an  adept  in  the  art  of  manag- 
ing men,  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  unfortunately  fitted  into 
that  class  of  Democrats  described  by  Governor  Morton  as 
men  "  riding  backwards  in  a  railroad  train.  They  never 
see  the  right  side  of  a  measure  until  the  train  passes  it." 
During  our  stay  at  Hebron  the  debate  in  the  Senate  on 
the  proposed  Thirteenth  Amendment  continued.1  April  6, 
1864,  by  a  vote  of  thirty-eight  to  six  the  Senate  voted  to 
ratify  it.  The  six  votes  in  the  negative  were  cast  by  Sena- 
tor Hendricks,  Senator  McDougall  of  California,  and  two 
senators  from  Kentucky  and  two  from  Delaware,  but  in  the 
'  House  Senator  Hendricks's  influence  prevented  its  passage. 
Every  Democrat  in  the  House  from  Indiana  voted  against 
its  submission.  At  the  election  in  the  Fall  of  1862  the  Dem- 
ocrats had  carried  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois. 
The  coming  expiration  of  the  term  of  service  of  many 
of  General  Sherman's  command  suspended  his  operations. 
Otherwise  he  would  most  likely  have  gone  to  Selma  or 
Mobile.  At  least  this  was  my  husband's  view.  The  gov- 
ernment did  not  wait  for  the  period  of  enlistment  to  arrive, 
but  took  time  by  the  forelock.  Before  the  Meridian  Ex- 
pedition began,  inducements  and  powerful  pressure  were 
brought  to  bear  on  the  veterans  to  re-enlist.  This  was  to 
counteract  the  appeals  of  the  " Dough-faces"  and  the  "Cop- 
perheads"—I  am  using  the  language  of  the  times  —  to  the 
three-year  men  to  refuse  to  re-enlist  and  thereby  end  the 
war.  Emissaries  were  sent  to  them  and  letters  were  written 
to  them.  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  one  of  the  officers  who 
was  assigned,  but  not  by  any  formal  order,  to  speak  and 
personally  appeal  in  February  and  March,  1864,  to  the 
veterans  to  re-enlist.  Unfortunately  none  of  the  speeches 
of  the  soldier  orators  of  that  time  were  preserved. 

1  Senator  John    B.  Henderson,  the   slaveholder  of  Missouri,  and  Reverdy  Johnson  of 
Maryland  spoke  in  favor  of  it,  while  Thomas  A.  Hendricks's  voice  was  against  it. 

In  the  Missouri  Constitutional  Convention  of  1863,  Judge  Breckenridge  said:  "Two 
years  of  war  to  perpetuate  slavery  has  done  more  for  abolition  than  all  the  Abolitionists. 
The  young  and  able-bodied  farm-hands  are  running  away,  leaving  only  the  aged  and  infirm. 
The  way  to  keep  the  able-bodied  workmen  is  to  abolish  slavery  at  once." 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE- E  NL  I  S  TM  E  NT  S        289 

Among  the  papers  General  Crocker  had  for  my  husband 
was  an  account  of  a  mass  meeting  held  February  3,  1863, 
in  Shelbyville,  Indiana,  Senator  Hendricks's  home.  There 
were  Democrats  from  that  town  and  county  in  Sherman's 
army  and  throughout  the  armies  of  the  Union.  In  his 
speech  the  Senator  had  said : 

Gentlemen,  what  is  the  effect  upon  you  at  home  when  you 
see  the  purpose  of  this  war  changed  from  a  contest  for  the  Union 
and  Constitution  to  a  contest  to  free  the  negroes?  What  is  the 
effect  upon  your  manly  pride  ?  What  is  the  effect  upon  the  army 
in  the  field?  I  think  I  can  comprehend  something  of  the  honor, 
something  of  the  pride  the  soldier  feels  as  he  stands  upon  the 
field  and  the  missiles  of  death  are  flying  around  him.  In  the 
midst  of  that  trying  scene,  testing  all  the  high  qualities  of  a  sol- 
dier, when  he  looks  up  to  that  flag  and  thinks  it  the  emblem  of 
the  United  States  under  the  Constitution,  when  he  is  fighting  the 
battles  of  that  flag,  he  feels  that  he  is  fighting  a  glorious  war,  and 
he  can  do  his  duty  faithfully.  But  when  the  proclamation  of 
January  1,  1863,  is  issued,  and  he  is  told  that  he  shall  make  it  his 
business  to  fight  to  make  negroes  free,  where  has  the  pride  of  the 
soldier  gone?  Can  he  fight  in  such  a  battle  as  that?  He  can- 
not do  it. 

Then  after  playing  on  the  prejudice  that  existed  against 
admitting  the  negro  to  the  ranks,  Senator  Hendricks  used 
these  expressions: 

We  have  elected  a  majority  of  the  next  House  of  Represent- 
atives. .  .  .  But  that  Congress  will  not  meet  until  next  December 
and  until  that  time  the  government  will  be  under  the  control  of 
the  Abolitionists.  It  may  be  that  events  will  settle  the  question 
before  that  time.  If  it  goes  on  a  little  while  longer  as  it  has 
been  going  since  the  President  issued  his  proclamation,  it  is  go- 
ing against  us. 

Walter  Q.  Gresham's  retort  to  this  argument  was: 

When  it  was  simply  a  question  of  the  Union  and  the  Con- 
stitution in  1 86 1  and  1862,  did  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  advise  any 
man  to  enlist?  On  the  contrary,  you  know  he  advised  exactly 
the  contrary.     Re-enlist,  and  before  that  dishonorable  Congress 


290         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

will  have  adjourned,  the  honorable  man  in  the  field  with  a  gun  in 
his  hands  will  have  surrendered. 

In  the  convention  that  nominated  Horatio  Seymour 
for  Governor  of  New  York  in  1864,  the  house  was  brought 
down  when  Judge  Miller  of  Ohio  said:  "There  is  no  real 
difference  between  a  War  Democrat  and  an  Abolitionist  —  they 
are  links  of  one  sausage,  made  out  of  the  same  dog."  While 
expressions  like  these  encouraged  the  Southern  leaders  and 
their  soldiers  to  continue  the  fight,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
aroused  the  Democratic  veteran  to  a  fury  that  led  him  to 
re-enlist. 

A  single  instance  will  illustrate  the  workings  of  the 
soldier  mind  and  show  how  the  " Dough-face"  and  the 
"Copperhead"  failed  to  understand  him.  Adam  Stoker  was 
one  of  Ben  Gresham's  Third  Indiana  Cavalry  men,  who,  in 
May,  1864,  although  but  two  years  out  of  his  teens,  had 
finished  his  term  of  three  years'  service  and  returned  home 
declaring  he  had  had  enough  of  war.  He  had  been  at 
Fredericksburg,  Chancellor sville,  Antietam,  Gettysburg  and 
in  almost  every  other  engagement  in  which  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  had  participated.  "I  was  Colonel  Ben's  orderly 
when  he  called  on  Joe  Hooker,  and  told  him  how  he  thought 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  should  be  handled."  Adam  was 
a  Democrat,  born  in  Lanesville  of  German  parents,  and  had 
been  reared  in  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  as  were  most  of 
the  Germans  of  that  neighborhood.  The  day  following  his 
return  he  went  to  Lanesville  and  walked  into  Antone  Endris' 
saloon,  where  a  dozen  men  were  standing,  half  of  whom 
belonged  to  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle.  He  ordered 
drinks  for  the  crowd,  in  honor  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States.  As  Antone  set  out  the  glasses,  he  said 
with  a  sneer,  "Adam,  I'm  glad  you're  through  fighting 
for  them  baboons."  Adam  flared  up,  and  with  many 
expressions  that  would  not  look  well  in  print,  exclaimed: 
"Antone,  when  Father  Alfonzo  takes  that  baboon  into  the 
confessional  and  grants  him  absolution,  hasn't  that  baboon 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  R  E  -  E  NL  I  S  TM  E  N  T  S        291 

got  as  good  a  soul  as  you?"  Friends  had  a  hard  time  pre- 
venting a  fight,  and  the  next  day  Adam  rode  to  Corydon, 
hunted  up  Samuel  J.  Wright,  the  enrolling  officer  for  our 
district,  and  re-enlisted  for  the  war.  Later  Adam  was  at 
Appomattox  and,  although  never  very  devout,  was  hale 
and  hearty  at  three-score  and  ten. 

Perhaps  due  consideration  was  not  shown  the  man  who 
did  not  want  to  re-enlist.  But  few  could  stand  it  to  become 
an  object  of  suspicion,  to  be  considered  a  coward,  a  traitor. 
Only  one  man  of  all  those  Walter  Q.  Gresham  went  after, 
did  he  fail  to  induce  to  re-enlist.  Sergeant  Abel  of  the 
Twenty-third  Indiana  was  that  man.  Under  threats  of 
being  reduced  to  the  ranks,  Abel  remained  firm.  For 
twenty-eight  years  he  cherished  his  resentment  and  only 
forgave  that  brigadier-general  when  the  latter  voted  for 
Grover  Cleveland  in  1892.  At  Hebron,  Mississippi,  the 
Twenty-third  and  Fifty-third  Indiana  Volunteers  almost 
bodily  re-enlisted  under  the  promise  of  a  furlough  home. 
The  same  was  true  of  all  other  regiments  then  in  Mississippi. 

If  the  government  at  Richmond  did  not  appreciate  the 
situation,  the  Southern  press  did.  Commenting  on  the  re- 
enlistments  of  the  Union  soldiers,  the  Richmond  Examiner 
expressed  its  regret,  while  the  Mobile  Register  said,  "And 
we  are  called  upon  to  believe  that  mobs  of  raw  recruits, 
half  starved  and  poorly  equipped,  are  to  do  next  spring 
what  veterans  have  not  been  able  to  do  after  three  years' 
hard  and  repeated  trials." 

At  Hebron  we  lived  in  the  mansion  but  had  our  meals 
in  camp.  General  Crocker's  cook  was  a  tall  bony  contra- 
band. She  persisted  in  regarding  me  as  a  Yankee.  She 
would  not  believe  I  was  from  Kentucky.  My  woman's 
instinct  concluded,  what  the  general  officers  scouted  at, 
that  she  was  a  spy.  To  the  very  last,  what  many  of  my 
New  England  friends  cannot  believe  and  understand,  the 
negro  was  unswervingly  loyal  to  his  master,  and  in  many 
instances,    as   I   have  heard    ex-Confederate    officers    say, 


292         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

negroes  served  as  Confederate  spies.  Vegetables  were  very- 
scarce  at  Hebron.  I  was  the  curiosity  of  the  camp  when  I 
undertook  to  do  some  cooking  over  a  campfire  because  I 
tired  of  army  rations.  In  trying  to  make  a  cake  I  asked 
for  some  milk.  "Wait  until  I  milk  the  cow,"  said  a  soldier. 
It  reminded  me  of  Memphis.  The  soldiers  almost  killed 
our  children  by  feeding  them  everything  they  ate  them- 
selves and  could  buy  at  the  sutler's. 

I  left  Black  River  with  a  brigade  under  my  husband's 
command  bound  for  the  North  as  veterans  on  veterans' 
furlough.  At  Vicksburg  Mrs.  Davis  and  I  demurred  about 
going  on  boats  with  soldiers.  But  we  finally  went  on  the 
boat  that  carried  the  Fifty-third  and  Twenty-third  Indiana 
regiments,  packed  in  like  sardines.  The  rear  of  the  long 
cabin  was  partitioned  off  for  the  officers  and  their  headquar- 
ters. The  soldiers  occupied  the  front  cabin,  the  lower  or 
boiler  deck,  the  "Texas,"  and  outside  the  cabins  on  the 
guards.  They  slept  out  with  nothing  but  their  blankets 
and  apparently  enjoyed  it.  They  played  cards,  drank, 
talked  politics,  cursed  Tom  Hendricks  and  the  "Copper- 
heads," and  boasted  of  what  they  would  do  when  they  got 
back  to  the  front.  They  cooked  on  the  boiler  deck  around 
the  engines  and  in  the  cabins.  The  boat  was  on  fire  a 
great  many  times  —  continuously  so,  it  seemed  to  me. 
One  night  I  roused  my  husband  and  .told  him  to  put  my 
children  and  myself  on  shore.  He  pacified  me  by  putting 
a  guard  around  the  boiler.  It  was  almost  as  dangerous 
as  going  from  Memphis  to  Vicksburg  on  a  boat  loaded  with 
ammunition   and   expecting   to   be  fired   on   any   minute. 

Late  one  cold,  clear  night  we  landed  at  Evansville. 
The  guards  were  carpeted  with  sleeping  forms  covered  only 
with  a  blanket,  with  a  knapsack  for  a  pillow.  The  river 
was  high  and  we  were  well  up  to  the  level  of  the  city.  Sud- 
denly the  stillness  was  broken  by  a  gun  fired  from  the  bow 
of  the  boat.  Instantly,  it  seemed,  every  sleeping  form  was 
on  its  feet  and  every  musket  discharged.     Evansville  was 


MINOR    WARFARE  —  RE  -  E  NL  I  S  TM  E  NT  S         293 

alive,  men  and  women  were  in  the  streets  and  down  to  the 
levee,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the  ''boys."  Perhaps 
this  was  not  discipline,  the  professional  soldier  will  say; 
but  every  one  of  these  men  was  a  sovereign.  General 
Sherman  was  waiting  for  them,  and  he  was  more  consider- 
ate of  their  lives  than  of  the  lives  of  his  generals. 

The  next  morning,  at  Rockport,  Colonel  Jones  and  half 
of  the  Fifty-third  left  us.  The  following  morning  we  tied 
up  at  the .  ship  yard  at  lower  New  Albany.  Soon  the 
camp-fires  were  burning  on  the  river  bank,  and  I  had  the 
first  moment  of  relief  since  leaving  Vicksburg.  Men  and 
officers  scattered  to  their  homes.  The  Twenty-third  Indi- 
ana, as  stated  before,  had  been  organized  at  New  Albany. 
Its  colonel,  W.  L.  Sanderson,  and  its  Lieutenant-Colonel, 
W.  P.  Davis,  were  residents  there.  It  was  the  home  of 
Captain  Babbitt  and  many  others,  and  great  was  the  joy. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  ATLANTA  CAMPAIGN 


GRESHAM    APPOINTED    TO    TAKE    CROCKER  S    COMMAND 

BATTLE     OF     KENESAW     MOUNTAIN A     SOLDIER'S     VIEW     OF 

THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  GRANT  AND  SHERMAN  AS  COM- 
MANDERS  GRESHAM    WOUNDED    AT    ATLANTA CARRIED    TO 

NEW     ALBANY MCPHERSON'S     DEATH GRESHAM    DISABLED 

FOR    FIVE    YEARS. 

TV  /TY  husband's  orders,  after  a  short  furlough,  were  to  re- 
-**▼-*»  turn  to  Natchez  and  take  command  there.  But  Gen- 
eral Sherman,  whose  activities  were  about  to  be  renewed 
by  the  return  of  the  furloughed  veterans,  had  other  work  for 
these  veterans  and  for  the  brigadier  who  had  been  used  to 
induce  them  to  re-enlist.  Our  happiness  was  cut  short  by 
an  order  from  General  McPherson  for  General  Gresham 
to  leave  for  Cairo,  there  to  take  command  of  a  division  of 
furloughed  men  who  were  assembling,  and  then  join  Gen- 
eral Sherman's  army  as  part  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps 
of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  commanded  by  General 
McPherson  in  the  advance  on  Atlanta. 

Soon  the  letters  began  coming.  In  my  anxiety  I  studied 
my  map.     From  Cairo,  under  date  of  April  27,  1864: 

I  leave  here  tonight  at  12  o'clock  with  my  division.  I  have 
two  brigades  commanded  by  Colonel  M alloy  of  the  Seventeenth 
Wisconsin  and  Colonel  Potts  of  the  Twenty-third  Ohio;  we  also 
have  the  First  Minnesota  Battery  and  a  hospital  corps.  We  go 
up  the  Tennessee  River  and  receive  orders  again  at  Clifton,  which 
is  about  thirty  miles  below  Savannah,  Tennessee.  We  will  likely 
go  from  there  to  Huntsville  by  way  of  Pulaski. 

Captain  Babbitt  is  not  here  yet.     I  suppose  he  is  drunk. 

In  one  of  the  letters  after  they  reached  Clifton  is  this 
sentence:    "Babbitt  is  marching  with  his  company."     In 

294 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  295 

the  field  Babbitt  always  proved  his  worth.     From  a  letter 
of  July  15,  1864,  Chattahoochee,  Georgia,  I  quote: 

The  non-veterans  of  the  Twenty-third  will  go  home  in. a  few 
days.  Captain  Babbitt  has  been  selected  for  lieutenant-colonel 
of  the  regiment,  and  his  trip  home  is  to  get  his  commission. 
Babbitt  is  a  gallant  officer  and  I  am  glad  he  has  been  or  is  about 
to  be  promoted.  He  is  a  devoted  friend  of  mine,  notwithstanding 
I  have  blown  him  up  on  more  than  one  occasion.  He  will  make  a 
good  colonel.  Colonel  Jones  of  the  Fifty-third  will  resign  as  soon 
as  this  campaign  is  ended.  The  old  man  is  failing  in  strength, 
and  he  feels  it. 

But  a  cannon  ball  anticipated  the  old  man's  resignation. 

Meantime  the  trip  up  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee  to  Clifton 
in  the  spring  of  the  year  was  beautiful  beyond  description. 
They  took  along  with  them  3,000  head  of  cattle  for  Gen- 
eral Sherman's  army,  and  marched  via  Pulaski,  Tennessee, 
to  Athens,  Alabama.  The  celebrated  Confederate  General 
Forrest,  General  Gresham  wrote,  endeavored  to  cut  them 
off  by  coming  in  from  the  northeast  by  way  of  Florence — 

When  we  were  about  thirty  miles  from  Pulaski,  and  then 
commenced  a  forced  march,  and  made  Pulaski  in  one  day.  I 
was  only  five  days  coming  from  Clifton  here  [Athens],  a  distance 
of  ninety-five  miles,  and  lay  over  half  a  day  at  Pulaski,  and  the 
same  time  at  Prospect  for  information,  so  we  really  marched  the 
whole  distance  in  four  days.  The  men  bore  the  terrible  hard- 
ship without  a  murmur,  believing  that  it  was  necessary  to  pre- 
vent Forrest  from  cutting  our  lines  of  communication.  I  saw 
men  marching  yesterday  with  blood  oozing  out  of  the  toes  of 
their  shoes.  The  object  was  to  cut  General  Sherman's  com- 
munication and  force  him  to  fall  back  for  want  of  supplies.  The 
men  were  in  fine  trim  and  we  would  have  given  Forrest  a  stiff 
fight  if  we  had  got  together.  We  may  have  to  fight  him  yet,  for 
I  can't  learn  where  he  is. 

Huntsville,  Alabama,  where  they  remained  several  days, 
is  certainly  the  most  beautiful  town  I  ever  saw.  There 
they  found  the  Fifty-ninth  Indiana,  in  which  was  Lieu- 
tenant  Slemmons,   the   son   of   our  family  physician,  old 


296         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Doctor  Slemmons.  My  husband  endeavored  to  get  him 
detailed  from  his  regiment  for  staff  duty,  but  Colonel 
Martin  was  unwilling.  Twenty-eight  years  later  there 
was  correspondence  with  Lieutenant  Slemmons  as  to  why, 
as  a  former  Republican,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  should  vote 
for  Grover  Cleveland  for  President.1 

At  Huntsville  they  were  met  by  General  Blair  with  the 
balance  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  and  then  all  went 
to  the  front  together.  General  Crocker  took  command  of 
the  division.  But  at  Decatur,  a  few  days  later,  on  May 
27,  General  Crocker,  who  was  in  failing  health  and  went 
home  to  die  within  a  year,  asked  to  be  relieved  and  that 
Gresham  be  put  in  command  of  the  division.  "General 
McPherson  and  General  Sherman  are  both  well  pleased 
with  me,  and  my  prospects  for  permanent  command  are 
pretty  good.  Our  division  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  de- 
partment.    It  numbers  7,000  men  for  duty." 

From  Rome,  Georgia,  under  date  of  June  5 :  "  We  have 
been  as  late  as  4  a.  m.  getting  into  camp  some  evenings 
since  we  have  been  on  the  march."  From  Kingston, 
Georgia,  June  7:  "We  will  reach  General  Sherman  to- 
morrow. He  has  sent  word  that  he  is  waiting  for  us,  and 
has  been  for  five  or  six  days.  I  am  fearful  my  division 
will  be  too  much  fatigued  when  we  arrive  at  the  front  to 
do  much  for  several  days."  But  General  Sherman  thought 
differently  when  they  joined  him  the  next  day  at  Ackworth 
and  the  Fourth  Division  went  on  the  advance  on  the  left 
flank.  Immediately  the  mortality  began.  At  Big  Shanty 
they  met  the  Thirty-eighth  Indiana  and  Colonel  Dan 
Griffin,  and  also  my  brother-in-law  Rice  Payne,  the  surgeon 
of  the  Sixty-sixth  Indiana. 

The  following  letters  came  to  me  at  this  time : 

Headquarters,  Kenesaw  Mountain,  Ga., 

June  21,  1864 
I  have  been  too  much  engaged  for  several  days  to  write  you. 
I  wrote  Mr.  Slaughter  after  our  first  day's  operations;  that  is, 

1  See  page  670. 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  297 

after  our  first  engagement  with  the  enemy.  That  was  about 
noon  of  the  18th  inst.  We  made  a  gallant  charge  in  connection 
with  General  Arterhouse  on  my  right,  and  carried  the  enemy's 
first  line  of  works. 

My  loss  was  mostly  confined  to  the  Iowa  Brigade  and  the 
Twelfth  Wisconsin  of  my  old  brigade.  We  have  been  fighting 
now  every  day  since  the  13th  and  my  loss  numbers  124.  The 
Twenty-third  Indiana  has  had  eight  killed.  I  do  not  know  the 
number  of  wounded.  The  Fifty-third  has  had  four  killed — 
Cory  don  boys  all  well  and  safe. 

Day  before  yesterday  the  enemy  left  his  strong  position  in 
our  front,  and  we  advanced  skirmishing  and  under  fire  of  his 
artillery  until  we  came  to  his  third  line  of  works  at  the  foot  of 
the  mountains,  and  there  we  are  now.  We  are  pressing  him  hard 
at  all  points,  and  that  has  forced  him  to  give  up  part  of  his  line  to 
concentrate.  Captain  Spear's  battery  has  the  honor  of  killing 
the  Rebel  General  Polk.  Others  claim  the  honor,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  about  Spear's  guns  doing  the  work,  for  men  that  we  cap- 
tured the  day  of  the  charge  pointed  out  to  me  just  where  Polk 
was  killed,  which  is  undoubtedly  in  my  old  front.  General 
McPherson  and  General  Sherman  both  say  my  division  has  the 
honor  of  killing  the  Rebel  bishop  and  general. 

We  may  have  a  general  engagement  any  day.  There  was 
very  heavy  firing  on  the  right  yesterday  afternoon,  but  I  have 
heard  nothing  from  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  as  yet.  The 
Army  of  the  Tennessee  is  on  the  left.  The  Seventeenth  Army 
Corps  is  on  the  left  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  and  my  division 
is  on  the  left  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps.  Marietta  is  in 
plain  view  of  the  left  of  my  line,  and  we  salute  the  town  with  shell 
at  our  leisure. 

I  have  not  heard  from  the  Thirty-eighth  or  Sixty-sixth  for 
a  week;  we  have  no  time  to  visit. 

Headquarters,  Kenesaw  Mountain,  Ga., 

June  27,  1864 
At  8  a.  m.  to-day  we  assault  the  enemy's  works.     My  orders 
may  give  me  a  great  deal  to  do  and  then  my  work  may  not  be  so 
heavy.     But  I  presume  we  will  all  be  satisfied  by  sundown  that 
we  have  had  enough  to  do.    .    .    . 


298         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Headquarters,  Kenesaw  Mountain,  Ga., 

June  28,  1864 
I  wrote  you  yesterday  morning  that  we  were  about  going 
into  an  engagement.  I  came  out  all  right.  The  Fifty-third  Indi- 
ana and  Sixteenth  Iowa  suffered  pretty  heavily  Major  Vestal's 
old  company  was  almost  annihilated.  Captain  Wakefield  was 
captured,  but  not  until  he  was  wounded.  Lieutenant  Marsh  of 
the  same  company  was  mortally  wounded.  Captain  White  of 
Company  "I"  was  killed  on  the  enemy's  works.  Lieutenant  Dill- 
ingham of  the  same  company  leaped  on  the  parapets,  struck  at  a 
Rebel  officer  with  his  saber,  and  fell  back  with  three  wounds. 
The  regiment  distinguished  itself,  and  I  am  proud  of  it.  I  tried 
hard  to  teach  the  boys  to  be  good  soldiers,  and  I  succeeded.  Jim 
Clark  is  badly  wounded,  but  I  think  he  will  recover.  The  Corydon 
boys  are  all  well.  Send  word  to  Clark's  father,  who  lives  about 
four  miles  from  Corydon,  that  I  have  seen  his  son  and  that  he  is 
cheerful  and  hopeful.  He  fell  when  he  was  nobly  doing  his  duty. 
I  will  see  that  he  is  cared  for,  for  he  is  too  gallant  a  soldier  to  be 
neglected.     We  had  a  sharp  fight  and  did  well. 

Headquarters,  Kenesaw  Mountain,  Ga., 

July  2,  1864 
I  seize  an  opportunity  to  write  you  a  note  before  we  move. 
I  may  not  have  another  opportunity  for  several  days.  You  will 
hear  the  result  of  our  movement  through  the  press  before  another 
letter  reaches  you.  Don't  be  uneasy  about  me,  for  I  am  taking 
good  care  of  myself  and  my  health  is  good — very  good.  It  is  true 
there  is  no  telling  now  what  any  day  may  bring  forth.  We  learned 
yesterday  evening  that  part  of  the  Fifty-third  boys  that  we 
supposed  were  captured  on  the  27th,  were  killed  and  have  not  yet 
been  buried.  It  is  hard,  but  we  can't  help  it.  We  had  to  give 
up  the  ground  we  had  gained  before  we  could  take  care  of  all  of 
our  killed  and  wounded.  As  it  is,  the  poor  boys  have  been  de- 
nied burial.  Captain  Wakefield  was  captured — that  was  learned 
from  the  Atlanta  papers. 

Headquarters,  Near  Chattahoochee  River,  Ga., 

July  4,   1864 
We  are  now  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  army  and  only  two 
miles  from  Chattahoochee  River  and  eight  miles  from  Atlanta. 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  290 

We  expect  to  cross  the  river  soon.  I  am  on  the  extreme  right  of 
our  lines.  We  moved  up  yesterday  and  drove  the  enemy  from  our 
present  position,  with  the  loss  of  five  men.  When  we  moved 
from  the  left  to  the  right,  the  enemy  drew  back  from  our  last 
position  to  re-form  to  our  change,  and  General  Sherman  then 
went  into  Marietta,  where  he  now  has  his  headquarters.  I  will 
move  forward  to-day,  marching  on  my  right  and  in  the  direction 
of  the  river.  We  are  now  where  we  may  engage  the  enemy  any 
moment.  I  am  in  fine  health  and  spirits;  in  fact,  I  enjoy  the  life. 
My  division  thus  far  has  behaved  splendidly — magnificently, 
and  I  am  proud  of  it. 

We  had  a  terrible  march  yesterday.  The  weather  is  hot 
beyond  description.     Several  men  fell  dead  from  sunstroke. 

Headquarters,  Eight  Miles  from  Atlanta,  Ga., 

July  8,  1864 

I  wrote  you  on  the  Kenesaw  Mountain.  We  were  then  on 
the  extreme  left  and  we  are  now  on  the  extreme  right.  Our 
movements  since  I  wrote  last  have  induced  the  enemy  to  fall  back 
and  Marietta  is  now  in  our  possession.  We  left  Kenesaw  and 
marched  around  the  rear  of  our  army  (twelve  miles)  until  we  passed 
on  their  extreme  right.  I  was  in  advance  and  we  soon  struck  the 
enemy  and,  as  the  boys  say,  "went  in."  That  day  we  marched 
twelve  miles,  and  from  6  p.m.  till  dark  drove  four  brigades  of  Rebel 
cavalry  well  supplied  with  artillery  two  miles.  We  are  now  five 
and  a  half  miles  from  where  we  first  struck  the  enemy  on  this, 
flank,  and  we  have  fought  for  every  inch  of  the  ground.  Day 
before  yesterday  was  the  hardest  day  we  have  had.  We  assaulted 
the  enemy's  works  and  captured  them.  That  was  two  miles  in 
rear  of  our  present  position.  In  that  charge  the  Fifty-third  was 
in  reserve  and  did  not  suffer  heavily.  Don't  know  how  many 
they  lost,  but  Captain  Beers  is  among  the  wounded.  He  was 
struck  by  a  canister,  but  is  not  badly  wounded.  After  taking 
the  breastworks,  we  made  another  charge  on  the  enemy  stationed 
at  Nickajack  Creek.  That  charge  was  simply  terrible.  We 
were  met  by  every  missile  used  in  war  —  grape,  canister,  shell, 
minie  balls,  etc.  We  took  the  creek  and  fortified  our  position, 
and  last  night  I  crossed  and  fortified  again. 

General  McPherson,  General  Logan,  and  General  Blair  were 


300         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

all  on  a  high  hill  and  witnessed  our  charge  when  we  took  Nickajack 
Creek,  and  they  all  spoke  in  high  praise  of  us.  I  have  a  noble 
old  division,  I  assure  you,  and  I  am  proud  of  it.  We  have  fought 
every  day  since  the  nth  of  June  and  have  lost  men  every  day. 
My  loss  in  that  time  is  over  450  men.     I  am  tired  but  well. 

The  enemy  opened  on  us  with  his  artillery  last  night  just 
after  dark.  He  used  eighteen  guns  and  his  cannonading  was 
awful.  We  hugged  our  works  closely,  and  replied  with  artillery. 
Colonel  Sanderson's  horse  was  killed;  we  lost  quite  a  number  of 
horses,  mules,  and  wagons,  and  had  four  men  killed  and  eleven 
wounded. 

I  am  feeling  fine.  You  should  be  satisfied  now,  for  there 
is  not  another  brigadier  in  this  army  commanding  a  division, 
whose  commission  is  not  older  than  mine.  I  have  now  a  good 
chance  and  am  improving  it.  We  don't  get  credit  in  the  papers 
for  what  we  do,  because  General  Blair  commands  our  corps.  The 
papers  are  all  down  on  him.     He  is  a  very  clever  gentleman. 

Headquarters,  Chattahoochee  River,  Ga., 

July  10,  1864 

The  enemy  abandoned  his  works  last  night,  and  under  cover 
of  darkness  crossed  the  river  and  took  up  a  position  on  the  opposite 
side.  We  followed  him  up  and  at  daybreak  were  in  the  works 
he  abandoned  at  3  a.  m.  He  is  now  on  the  south  side  of  the  river, 
well  entrenched,  and  we  are  on  the  north  side.  We  have  been 
hard  at  work  all  day  digging  trenches  for  our  men  and  redoubts 
for  our  batteries.  We  will  open  on  them  in  the  morning,  and  the 
Rebs  will  find  their  line  as  uncomfortable  as  their  old  ones.  To- 
day we  have  been  fighting  across  the  river.  I  made  a  narrow 
escape  this  morning  on  the  skirmish  line.  I  was  out  looking  at  the 
enemy's  position  and  one  of  the  men  belonging  to  the  Thirty- 
second  Illinois  was  shot  just  by  my  side  by  a  sharpshooter. 

We  used  to  think  it  was  something  to  fight  or  skirmish  for 
a  whole  day,  but  now  we  have  been  fighting  continually  for  over 
a  month  and  our  loss  attests  the  character  of  our  work.  I  am 
speaking  within  bounds  when  I  say  that  few  divisions  in  the  army 
of  the  Tennessee  or  Cumberland  have  done  as  much  as  we  have 
since  we  joined  General  Sherman's  at  Ack worth.  The  day  we 
took  Nickajack  Creek  we  had  a  hard  fight.     We  drove  the  enemy 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  301 

from  a  fine  earthwork  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  then  we 
took  the  Nickajack  under  a  perfect  shower  of  shell,  shrapnel,  and 
canister.  General  McPherson  speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of 
praise  of  us,  and  I  can  say  to  you  that  he  has  more  than  once 
spoken  in  terms  complimentary  of  me  as  an  officer.  This,  of 
course,  is  only  for  you.  You  know  I  never  boasted  of  my  own 
merits. 

The  enemy  is  now  entirely  across  the  Chattahoochee  and  he 
will  be  farther  south  soon.  Don't  get  discouraged.  General 
Grant  will  whip  Lee,  and  we  can  then  whip  Johnston.  The 
Union  can  and  will  be  maintained.     It  must  be  maintained.   .  .  . 

Headquarters,  Chattahoochee  River,  Ga., 

July  12,  1864 

Am  well  and  doing  well.  The  enemy  is  on  one  side  of  the 
river  and  we  are  on  the  other.  The  boys  are  more  friendly 
with  each  other  than  they  have  been  heretofore.  Yesterday  and 
to-day  they  have  been  swimming  together  in  the  river.  It  looks 
strange  to  see  squads  of  men  meet  in  a  friendly  way  and  exchange 
tokens  of  regard,  and  the  next  moment  go  to  fighting.  Such  is 
our  war. 

To-morrow  we  will  move  around  to  the  extreme  left  of  our 
army  and  cross  the  river.  We  will  have  to  march  thirty  miles. 
The  Army  of  the  Tennessee  is  not  allowed  to  be  idle,  I  assure  you. 
General  Sherman  calls  us  the  "cracker  to  his  whip,"  and  uses  us 
to  touch  up  the  enemy's  flanks.  I  sometimes  feel  disgusted  and 
mad  to  see  the  way  the  papers  puff  some  divisions  and  commands 
when  they  do  so  little  in  comparison  with  those  that  are  scarcely 
mentioned.  But  it  takes  money  to  get  notices  in  newspapers  and 
we  don't  spend  anything  that  way. 

Headquarters,  Chattahoochee  River,  Ga., 

July  15,  1864 
We  occupy  the  same  position  we  did  when  I  wrote  you  last, 
but  we  are  hourly  expecting  orders  to  move.  The  weather  is 
terribly  hot;  I  think  I  suffer  more  from  the  heat  than  I  did  at 
Vicksburg  last  summer.  My  command  is  pretty  well  worn  out. 
It  has  been  very  hard  on  the  men  from  the  fact  that  half  of  the 
time  they  have  had  to  work  after  night,  throwing  up  works.     We 

20 


302  LIFE     OF     WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

have  now  been  in  line  of  battle  since  the  nth  of  June,  and  during 
that  time  have  had  some  hard  fighting. 

My  health  continues  to  be  good.  I  have  frequently  told  you 
that  my  health  is  always  better  when  I  am  in  action,  and  you 
ought  to  be  convinced  by  this  time  that  it  is  so. 

One  bright  day  at  noon  the  mail  brought  my  last,  my 
best,  and  shortest  letter.  It  was  from  Decatur,  Georgia: 
"We  are  still  on  the  extreme  left,  due  east  of  Atlanta.  Be 
of  good  cheer,  a  good  time  is  coming.  We  will  soon  be 
through."  The  warmth  and  glow  in  my  heart  that  evening 
as  I  sat  on  my  veranda  and  watched  the  western  sun,  was 
dulled  by  the  arrival  of  a  special  messenger  at  Cory  don, 
who  informed  me  my  husband  had  been  desperately  wound- 
ed at  Atlanta,  and  for  me  to  meet  him  at  Nashville.  After 
a  sleepless  night  I  started  early  the  next  morning,  driving 
to  New  Albany,  thence  by  rail  to  Nashville.  On  reaching 
Nashville,  as  I  went  in  at  the  front  door  of  the  Maxwell 
House,  General  McArthur,  whom  I  had  met  at  Vicksburg, 
leaned  out  of  the  window  and  said,  "Mrs.  Gresham,  they 
are  just  carrying  your  husband  in  at  the  rear." 

I  found  him  indeed  desperately  wounded.  The  division 
surgeon,  Doctor  Eastman  of  Wisconsin,  was  with  him. 
Colonel  Benjamin  Q.  A.  Gresham,  my  brother-in-law,  who 
commanded  the  Tenth  Indiana  Cavalry,  stationed  at  some 
place  in  eastern  Tennessee,  was  also  there.  When  he 
heard  of  his  brother's  wound,  he  left  his  command,  without 
leave,  and  went  to  him.  A  universal  favorite  with  a  fine 
record,  and  an  independence  that  was  refreshing  and  ap- 
parently approved  by  his  superiors,  he  was  not  even  cen- 
sured for  doing  what  ordinarily  would  have  been  punished 
by  dismissal.  The  handsomest  man  I  saw  in  uniform  dur- 
ing the  war,  of  powerful  physique,  he  possessed  that  magi- 
cal control  over  men  that  made  him  a  force  and  a  leader 
in  whatever  company  he  was  thrown.  Many  a  man  got 
credit  for  his  work  in  the  field  while  he  did  not  get  the 
promotion  he  deserved.     He  was  almost  universally  spoken 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  303 

of  and  frequently  addressed  as  "Colonel  Ben."  When  the 
army  was  on  the  retreat,  he  was  generally  covering  the 
rear;   when  it  was  advancing,  he  was  in  the  lead. 

We  remained  that  night  in  the  Maxwell  House.  ' '  Colo- 
nel Ben's"  cheerfulness  and  good  nature  did  much  to  allay 
the  impatience  and  regret  which  my  husband  was  feeling 
at  having  lost  his  place  at  the  front.  Older,  larger  in  size, 
it  was  the  big  brother  again.  He  said  to  my  husband, 
"You  are  not  the  only  fellow  that  was  ever  wounded. 
You  are  fortunate  that  you  did  not  meet  McPherson's  fate. 
In  advance  of  a  skirmish  line  is  no  place  for  a  division 
commander,  let  alone  the  commander  of  an  army.  You 
seem  to  think  you  could  go  through  this  war  unscathed. 
I  have  been  hit  and  must  still  take  my  chances."  And  he 
continued  to  take  them  until  in  the  last  days  of  December 
of  that  year  in  a  skirmish,  as  he  was  leading  the  pursuit  after 
the  battle  of  Nashville,  he  received  the  wounds  that  caused 
his  death.  His  talk  was  a  good  thing  in  that  it  diverted 
my  husband's  mind  from  the  wound.  One  thing  the  Gen- 
eral said  was:  "Ben,  you  never  did  have  any  respect  or 
consideration  for  anything  or  anybody."  And  then  there 
was  a  hot  discussion  about  generals  and  campaigns. 

And  here  I  must  tell  a  story  which  "Colonel  Ben"  after- 
wards told  me  of  how  he  came  to  get  his  last  wound.  It 
relates  to  his  superior  officer,  General  J.  H.  Wilson,  who 
commanded  the  Federal  cavalry  of  General  Thomas's  army 
at  Nashville,  and  it  has  a  bearing  on  the  delay  on  General 
Thomas's  part  at  Nashville  which  made  General  Grant  so 
impatient. 

After  I  reached  camp  at  Nashville  I  went  to  General  Wilson's 
headquarters  in  response  to  a  summons  from  him.  General  Wilson 
said,  "Colonel  Gresham,  be  prepared  to  take  the  lead  with  your 
regiment  by  to-morrow.  We  may  attack,  or  the  enemy  may 
retreat."  I  replied,  "General  Wilson,  I  have  helped  cover  the 
rear  from  east  Tennessee  in.  Mine  was  the  last  regiment  into 
Franklin,  the  last  out  of  Franklin,  and  the  last  into  Nashville. 


304         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

My  men  are  all  right,  but  the  regiment  is  practically  dismounted. 
Our  horses  are  worn  out.  Why  not  let  some  of  these  new  regi- 
ments with  fresh  mounts  take  the  lead?"  "Consider  yourself 
under  arrest,  sir,"  answered  the  general.  Taking  off  my  sword 
and  throwing  it  down  on  the  general's  table,  I  replied:  "This 
is  unjust.  My  regiment  has  borne  more  service  than  any  other 
cavalry  regiment  in  the  army,  and  I  will  make  you  prefer  your 
charges."  Then  I  went  to  my  tent.  Soon  a  staff  officer  came 
from  General  Wilson  and  asked  me  to  overlook  the  incident, 
reconsider  my  determination,  and  take  command  of  my  regiment. 
Several  times  was  the  visit  repeated,  but  each  time  I  answered: 
"Tell  General  Wilson  I  refuse.  I  have  been  badly  treated.  I 
shall  make  him  prefer  his  charges."  Finally  the  staff  officer  came 
and  said,  "General  Wilson  presents  his  compliments  to  Colonel 
Gresham  and  requests  him  to  select  such  horses  from  the  new 
regiments  as  in  his  judgment  may  be  necessary  properly  to  mount 
his  regiment,  and  be  prepared  to  take  the  lead."  I  could  not 
stand  out  against  that.  "Tell  General  Wilson  I  will  obey  his 
order."  I  took  the  best  horses  I  could  find  in  those  several  regi- 
ments and  mounted  my  regiment  as  I  thought  it  should  be. 

General  Thomas's  delay  in  attacking  Hood  when  Hood 
followed  Thomas's  army  up  to  Nashville  almost  made 
General  Grant  frantic.  General  Wilson  gives  a  graphic 
account  of  the  reorganization  of  Thomas's  army,  especial- 
ly the  cavalry  after  it  reached  Nashville.  How  much 
"Colonel  Ben's"  decision  of  character  contributed  to  Gen- 
eral Thomas's  defiance  of  General  Grant's  orders,  there  is 
no  record  of.  Hood  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked,  but  led 
to  it,  was  defeated,  and  we  have  General  Wilson's  report 
for  it  that  "Colonel  Ben"  was  in  the  lead  in  the  pur- 
suit. Toward  night,  in  a  charge,  "Colonel  Ben"  received 
the  wound  that  would  have  ended  most  men's  lives  on  the 
field,  and  which  finally,  after  a  number  of  years,  most  of 
them  of  suffering,  ended  his. 

Years  afterwards,  at  a  dinner  party,  I  asked  General 
J.  H.  Wilson  if  he  knew  my  husband's  brother,  "Colonel 
Ben"  Gresham.     "Oh,  yes,"  was  his  answer,  "everybody 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  305 

knew  'Colonel  Ben,'  and  the  official  records  attest  his 
gallantry." 

It  was  due  to  " Colonel  Ben"  that  we  were  able  to  leave 
Nashville  the  next  morning.  The  cot  on  which  my  husband 
was  carried  was  too  large  to  go  through  the  doors  of  the 
cars  in  the  train  which  had  been  made  up.  "  Colonel 
Ben"  had  the  train  held  until  he  procured  another  car  with 
wider  doors.  In  this  car,  which  was  attached  to  the  rear 
of  the  train,  the  cot  was  placed  on  top  of  the  backs  of  the 
car  seats.  Doctor  Eastman  and  two  or  three  soldiers  and 
myself,  as  nurses,  made  up  the  other  occupants  of  the  car. 
''Colonel  Ben,"  without  any  other  leave  than  his  own,  went 
with  us  to  Louisville. 

At  the  station  in  Louisville  an  ambulance  and  a  crowd 
of  curious  people  awaited  us.  My  husband  did  not  want 
the  people  to  see  him.  I  had  covered  his  face  with  a  hand- 
kerchief, and  while  we  were  waiting  for  the  ambulance  a 
woman  came  up,  jerked  the  handkerchief  off  his  face  and 
asked,  "Is  he  dead?"  It  was  hoped  we  could  get  to  New 
Albany  that  night,  in  order  to  avoid  the  pain  incident  to 
loading  and  unloading  into  the  ambulance.  We  drove 
from  the  Louisville  station  to  Portland  to  take  the  ferry 
boat  to  New  Albany,  but  our  progress  was  slow,  as  we 
could  not  go  faster  than  a  walk.  Arrived  at  the  foot  of 
the  levee  at  Portland  at  midnight,  we  saw  the  ferry  boat 
stuck  on  a  sand  bar  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  so  we  were 
forced  to  drive  back  up  the  levee  to  the  Portland  Hotel  for 
the  night.  To  avoid  the  crowds  of  curious  people  we  made 
a  very  early  start  in  the  morning  for  New  Albany.  This 
time  my  husband  was  carried  down  to  the  levee  and  on  the 
boat,  as  it  was  too  painful  for  him  to  be  driven  down. 

There  were  hospitals  at  Louisville  and  New  Albany, 
but  the  doctors  said  it  would  not  do  to  take  my  husband  to 
one  of  them  because  of  the  danger  of  gangrene,  especially 
after  he  had  lived  in  the  field  and  in  tents  for  three  years. 
"Neither  will  he  be  able  to  stand  the  confinement  of  a 


306         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

house  or  hotel.' '     So  it  was  arranged  to  put  up  a  tent  in 
Mr.  R.  P.  Mann's  yard,  and  there  we  stayed  a  month. 

Doctor  Eastman,  after  a  few  days  in  New  Albany, 
turned  him  over  to  Doctor  Sloane,  who  was  in  charge  of 
the  army  hospitals  there.  We  had  no  trained  nurses  in 
those  days ;  convalescents  and  soldiers  that  had  gained  some 
experience  in  the  hospitals  were  detailed  as  such.  We  had 
one  for  the  day  and  one  at  night, —  a  corporal  and  a  ser- 
geant. With  their  assistance  I  nursed  General  Gresham 
for  the  first  four  months;  my  clothes  were  off  only  when  I 
changed  them.  Doctor  Sloane  visited  him  every  day,  and 
there  was  not  a  more  capable  or  competent  man  in  his 
profession  in  that  or  any  other  day.  The  wound  was  pro- 
duced by  a  minie  ball  striking  the  main  bone  of  the  left 
lower  limb.  The  bone  was  shattered  for  three  inches. 
After  some  of  the  splinters  were  removed,  the  ends  of  the 
bone  remaining  in  the  leg,  nearest  together,  were  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  apart.  The  opinion  of  the  surgeons 
was  that  as  he  was  young  and  vigorous,  with  absolutely 
pure  blood,  and  had  no  bad  habits,  he  had  one  chance  in  a 
hundred  for  the  bone  to  grow  and  knit  together.  All  the 
surgeons  in  the  field  but  one,  Doctor  Eastman,  were  for 
amputation.  One  of  the  stories  is  that  it  was  this  doctor's 
opinion  and  my  husband's  revolver  that  prevented  ampu- 
tation on  the  field.  Doctor  Eastman  said,  "You  must 
take  the  risk,  and  save  his  leg,"  the  risk  being  that  he  en- 
dangered his  life  in  not  having  the  limb  amputated  at  once. 
When  Doctor  Eastman  left  me,  he  looked  me  in  the  eye, 
and  said,  "His  life  is  in  your  hands." 

No  sooner  were  we  settled  in  New  Albany  than  letters 
by  the  score  came  from  officers  inquiring  as  to  his  condi- 
tion and  giving  an  account  of  the  military  situation.  There 
were  letters  from  Cyrus  Hall,  Colonels  Potts,  Belknap  and 
Cadle,  Captains  Babbitt  and  Duncan  of  his  staff,  Frank  P. 
Blair,  Jr.,  the  commander  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps, 
and  scores  of  others,     The  best  letters  were  from  Duncan 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  307 

and  Babbitt  and  Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr.  My  husband  was 
shot  by  a  sharpshooter  late  in  the  afternoon  of  July  20, 
while  on  or  in  advance  of  the  picket  line.  At  noon  on  that 
day  two  divisions  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  the 
third  under  General  Leggett  and  the  fourth  under  General 
Gresham,  left  Decatur,  northeast  of  Atlanta,  and  moved 
southwest  toward  Atlanta,  with  Gresham's  division  in  the 
lead  and  pushing  the  enemy.  My  husband's  story  is  that 
when  nearing  the  works  around  Atlanta  he  had  gone  to  the 
front  with  his  glass  and  had  satisfied  himself  that  the  Con- 
federate line  in  his  immediate  front  was  weak.  He  was  on 
the  point  of  ordering  a  charge  with  a  view  to  boring  into 
Atlanta  when  he  was  shot  down.1  This  is  manifest  from  the 
letter  of  August  20  of  his  immediate  superior,  Frank  P. 
Blair,  Jr.,  who  commanded  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps. 
McPherson  commanded  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  which 
was  then  composed  of  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Army 
Corps.     Blair  wrote: 

You  have  doubtless  seen  the  papers'  tiresome  account  of  the 
terrible  conflict  we  had  on  the  21st  and  2 2d,  the  days  succeeding 
your  departure.  The  hill  to  the  left  of  the  position  you  occupied, 
and  from  which  you  received  your  wound,  was  so  commanding 
that  I  found  it  necessary,  having  reconnoitered  it  immediately 
after  you  fell,  to  carry  it  by  assault,  and  ordered  up  Leggett  (the 
Third  Division  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps)  on  your  left  for 
that  purpose.  Unfortunately  he  did  not  receive  the  order  to 
attack  it  that  evening,  the  staff  officer  I  sent  to  him  only  telling 
him  to  form  on  your  left  and  leaving  out  the  most  important 
part  of  the  order,  which  was  ' '  to  assault  immediately. ' '  This  delay 
enabled  the  enemy  to  reinforce  strongly  that  night,  which  they 
did,  and  fortified  themselves  to  some  extent.  Nevertheless  the 
hill  was  carried  next  morning  early  by  Leggett 's  division,  the 
Fourth  Division  [Gresham's],  under  General  Giles  A.  Smith, 
attacking  the  hill  in  front  at  the  same  time  in  order  to  prevent 
the  enemy  from  throwing  his  entire  strength  against  Leggett's 
division.  Both  divisions  lost  heavily  and  about  equally,  in  all 
about  730  men.     Next  morning  I  received  information  that  the 

ISee  page  310;  also,  "Cleburne  and  His  Command,"  Irving  G.  Buck,  page  271. 


308         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

enemy  had  retired  within  the  fortifications  of  Atlanta,  and  going 
to  the  front  I  found  they  had  abandoned  a  line  of  works  they  had 
thrown  up  the  night  previous  and  which  were  within  1,200  yards 
of  their  main  works.  McPherson,  Giles  Smith,  Leggett,  and  I 
were  all  out  upon  this  line  of  the  enemy's  abandoned  works  and 
it  was  decided  to  reverse  them  and  occupy  them.  Dodge  was 
ordered  to  occupy  a  position  on  my  left.  Returning  to  my  camp 
(which  was  on  the  road  on  which  the  enemy  first  opened  on  us  the 
day  you  were  wounded  and  where  one  of  their  shells  cut  your 
horse's  mane),  I  found  that  road  occupied  by  Dodge's  troops,  and 
turning  off  at  right  angles  near  the  house  where  you  formed  the 
Iowa  Brigade  and  the  head  of  the  column  reaching  near  the  spot 
where  I  saw  you  and  talked  to  you  after  you  had  been  wounded, 
the  enemy  attacked  us  in  front  flank  and  rear. 

McPherson  was  killed  in  attempting  to  reach  my  front  by 
passing  on  a  road  cut  through  the  heavy  timber,  directly  in  front 
of  where  I  saw  you  after  you  were  wounded. 

The  enemy  drove  in  our  pickets  and  skirmishers  and  followed 
them  up  with  their  line  of  battle,  but  they  could  not  manage  to 
connect  their  attacks  from  front  and  rear  at  the  same  moment. 
As  they  came  first  from  the  rear,  our  boys  took  the  opposite  side 
of  their  works  and  drove  them  back  with  great  slaughter,  following 
them  up  with  skirmish  line  to  hold  them  as  long  as  possible  and 
give  us  time  to  meet  the  attack  from  the  other  quarters.  Giles 
Smith  then  formed  the  Fourth  Division  at  right  angles  facing 
south  with  his  works,  and  drove  back  an  attack  from  the  direction 
of  Atlanta;  the  boys  jumped  over  their  works,  faced  about,  and 
sent  them  back  in  a  hurry.  By  this  time  the  line  which  attacked 
our  rear  had  rallied  and  reinforced,  and  came  up  with  a  yell.  The 
men  were  again  formed  in  the  reverse  or  Atlanta  side  of  their 
works  and  met  this  charge  with  the  same  courage  and  address  as 
the  others.  The  fighting  was  most  desperate,  the  enemy  coming 
up  to  the  breastworks  and  fighting  with  the  bayonet  and  sword 
in  hand-to-hand  encounter.  Colonel  Belknap,  of  the  Fifteenth 
Iowa,  took  prisoner  the  colonel  of  the  Forty-fifth  Alabama,  by 
taking  hold  of  his  coat  collar  and  pulling  him  over  the  breastworks. 
Many  other  equally  daring  acts  were  performed.  Finally  the 
enemy  were  compelled  to  retire  after  having  suffered  terribly. 
This  sort  of  fighting  continued  for  live  mortal  hours,  both  divisions 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  309 

repulsing  in  the  handsomest  manner  every  assault  made  upon 
them,  until  finally  at  about  6  o'clock  the  enemy  commenced  an 
attack  on  the  Fourth  Division  simultaneously  from  front,  flank, 
and  rear  with  musketry  and  artillery,  and  compelled  General 
Smith  to  abandon  his  position  and  draw  out  with  Leggett  a  line 
running  nearly  east  from  the  top  of  the  high  hill  captured  by 
Leggett  on  the  21st,  facing  to  the  south  and  extending  in  the 
direction  of  Dodge,  but  not  reaching  his  line  by  at  least  half  a 
mile.  Here  the  enemy  made  his  last  and  most  desperate  assault, 
with  fresh  troops.  The  object  appeared  to  be  to  drive  us  from  the 
hill  so  often  referred  to,  which  commanded  not  only  the  position 
of  the  Seventeenth  but  that  also  of  the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth 
Army  Corps.  The  fight  here  continued  until  long  after  dark, 
and  until  nothing  could  be  seen  but  the  flash  of  the  guns  from  the 
opposite  side  of  the  same  works  which  covered  the  crest  of  the 
hill.  The  enemy  planted  their  flags  side  by  side  with  ours  and 
fought  with  unparalleled  desperation  and  fury,  but  after  night 
set  in  their  fire  became  languid  and  feeble;  they  only  held  the 
ground  until  just  before  daylight  in  order  to  carry  off  their 
wounded.  The  morning  rose  on  such  a  scene  as  my  eyes  never 
before  looked  upon.  The  ground  was  literally  carpeted  with  their 
dead. 

It  is  certain  that  we  killed  over  2,000  of  them  and  wounded 
and  captured  enough  of  them  to  equal  the  entire  force  which  the 
Seventeenth  Army  Corps  took  into  the  fight,  about  8,000  men. 
This  would  appear  almost  preposterous,  but  when  the  closeness 
and  desperate  character  of  the  fighting  is  considered,  the  actual 
number  of  their  killed  on  part  of  the  field  which  we  control  and 
upon  the  balance  of  the  field,  seen  and  estimated  by  men  like 
Smith  and  Potts,  accustomed  to  these  bloody  scenes  and  by 
no  means  disposed  to  exaggerate,  as  you  are  well  aware,  then 
the  matter  assumes  quite  a  different  aspect. 

The  troops  that  fought  our  corps  were  Cleburne  and  Cheat- 
ham's divisions,  the  troops  under  Brigadier-General  Maney  of 
Hardee's  corps  on  our  flank  and  rear;  the  other  two  divisions  of 
Walker  and  Bates  attacking  Dodge,  and  a  part  of  Hood's  old 
corps  under  Cheatham  from  the  direction  of  Atlanta;  a  part 
of  this  corps  also  attacked  the  Fifteenth  on  our  right.  Our  loss 
was  1,801  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  and  on  the  day  before, 


310         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

as  I  have  already  stated,  about  750.     We  captured  about  seven 
stand  of  colors  and  about  1,000  muskets. 

This  letter  has  been  spun  out  to  an  enormous  length,  but  you 
asked  me  to  write,  and  I  knew  that  you  would  be  glad  to  hear 
of  the  achievements  of  your  old  command ;  and  I  have  considered 
that  as  you  are  laid  up  with  your  leg,  I  would  make  "a  night  of 
it  with  you."  Not  such  a  night  as  we  have  had  sometimes  in 
camp,  but  the  best  we  could  do  under  the  circumstances  and  at 
such  a  distance.     So  here's  to  you! 

You  will  have  heard  before  this  that  Belknap  has  been  ap- 
pointed a  brigadier-general.  Potts  has  been  recommended  and 
deserves  promotion  as  much  as  any  living  man.  Don't  you  wish 
you  were  here  in  camp? 

Your  friend, 

Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr. 

A  Confederate  who  was  all  through  the  Atlanta  cam- 
paign, serving  in  the  Breckenridge  Division,  to  whom  I 
showed  General  Blair's  letter,  expressed  the  opinion  that 
the  estimate  General  Blair  put  on  the  Confederate  casual- 
ties was  too  high.  Perhaps  so,  but  it  only  purports  to  be 
an  estimate  on  General  Blair's  part. 

After  my  husband  voted  for  Grover  Cleveland  all  kinds 
of  imputations  were  put  upon  his  motives,  and  among  the 
criticisms  visited  on  him  was  that  he  had  no  business  as  a 
division  commander  at  the  time  he  was  wounded,  to  oe  so 
far  to  the  front.  If  it  was  a  just  criticism,  it  applied  to 
some  men  in  rank  higher  than  he.  General  Sherman  was 
never  one  of  these  critics.  On  the  contrary,  Walter  Q. 
Gresham,  McPherson,  Blair,  and  others  were  where  General 
Sherman  wanted  them  to  be.  When  we  lived  in  Washing- 
ton during  Mr.  Arthur's  administration,  and  within  a  block 
of  General  Sherman's  residence,  I  heard  General  Sherman 
say  that  "if  Gresham  had  not  been  wounded  when  he  was, 
he  would  have  been  in  Atlanta  the  next  day."  Army  corps 
and  division  commanders,  at  General  Sherman's  instance, 
went  farther  to  the  front  than  was  the  case  in  most,  if  not 
all,  .other  armies.     This  was  because  many  of  the  colonels 


THE    ATLANTA    CAMPAIGN  311 

and  the  brigade  commanders,  in  accordance  with  General 
Sherman's  views,  did  not  wish  or  would  not  force  their  men 
into  the  ravines  through  which  the  army  was  being  pressed 
to  invest  Atlanta.  Captain  F.  Y.  Hedley,  Assistant  Adju- 
tant-General of  the  Second  Brigade  of  the  Fourth  Division 
of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  was  one  of  the  babies  of 
the  army,  only  seventeen,  and  so  undersized  when  he  en- 
listed in  the  Thirty-second  Illinois  at  Springfield  in  1861 
that  he  could  get  in  only  by  enrolling  as  a  musician- to-be. 
A  few  days  later,  according  to  a  previous  understanding 
with  Colonel  Logan,  he  was  reduced  to  the  ranks  so  he  could 
carry  a  gun.  He  was  but  twenty  when  he  re-enlisted  as  a 
veteran  in  January,  1864,  and  was  known  to  every  man  in 
the  Army  of  the  Tennessee.  After  the  war  Captain  Hed- 
ley said,  "General  Gresham  was  more  indebted  to  Colonel 
John  Logan  of  the  Thirty-second  Illinois,  a  cousin  of  Gen- 
eral Logan,  than  to  any  other  man.  Colonel  Logan,"  said 
the  captain,  "would  not  'go  in'  with  his  regiment  at  a 
certain  time  when  General  Gresham  wanted  him  to  do  so. 
Had  Logan  done  so  his  regiment  would  have  been  cut 
to  pieces  and  Gresham  would  have  lost  his  command. 
This  was  the  difference  between  Grant  and  Sherman  as 
commanders  of   an   army." 

In  a  letter  written  from  the  field,  Doctor  Edgar,  who 
wanted  to  amputate  the  leg,  said:  "If  you  could  have 
been  with  us  a  few  more  days  you  would  have  won  another 
star."  Captain  Babbitt,  now  a  colonel,  expressed  his 
sympathy  for  "the  man  who  was  born  to  command  and 
lead,  but  consigned  to  nursing  a  wounded  leg."  From 
Big  Shanty,  Georgia,  November  1,  1864,  he  wrote,  "Hood 
won't  stand  up  and  fight.  We  have  chased  him  all  over 
northern  Georgia  and  cannot  get  a  fight  out  of  him." 
He  seemed  to  know  everything  that  was  going  on  in  the 
army.  "Belknap  is  in  command  of  the  Fourth  Divis-  ^ 
ion  now,  but  he  bears  his  honors  awkwardly."  Then, 
soldierlike,   he  critisized   orders   from  his  superiors,  from 


312         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

General  Sherman  down  to  Potts,  his  brigade  commander. 

When  the  rainy  season  came  on,  we  moved  from  Mr. 
Mann's  yard  to  the  residence  of  Mr.  Charles  Sackett,  on 
First  Street,  and  then  across  the  street  from  him  to  a  house 
we  had  secured. 

After  about  ten  months  the  wound  looked  so  bad  that 
we  called  in  army  surgeons,  about  a  dozen  from  the  hos- 
pitals around  the  "Falls,"  that  is,  from  the  hospitals  in 
Jefferson ville,  New  Albany,  and  Louisville.  They  held  a 
consultation  and  then  said  the  amputation  must  take 
place  at  once;  that  it  was  the  only  chance  of  saving  the 
patient's  life.  Doctor  Sloane,  our  surgeon,  who  was  also 
on  the  staff  of  one  of  the  hospitals  and  had  been  with  us 
from  the  start,  sat  by  and  listened.  My  husband  turned 
to  him  and  asked:  "What  do  you  say,  Doctor?"  The 
doctor  answered,  "I  do  not  agree  with  the  gentlemen." 
My  husband  said,  "Will  you  not  amputate?"  "No,"  said 
Doctor  Sloane,  "I  will  not."  My  husband  said,  "If  you 
do  not,  no  one  else  can  touch  that  leg."  This  ended  the 
consultation. 

Doctor  Sloane  afterwards  said  to  me,  "They  might  as 
well  have  cut  his  head  off  as  to  have  amputated  at  that 
time,  for  all  the  chance  he  would  then  have  had  to  live, 
depleted  as  he  was  by  the  long  confinement  and  the  sup- 
puration on  the  wound."  In  a  letter  from  his  Wisconsin 
home,  Doctor  Eastman  confirmed  Doctor  Sloane's  opinion. 
Several  months  before,  Doctor  Eastman  had  called  on  us 
as  he  was  returning  from  the  front. 

It  was  a  year  in  bed,  most  of  the  time  on  the  flat  of  the 
back,  three  months  more  before  he  was  on  crutches,  and 
five  years  before  he  could  dispense  with  those  crutches. 
General  Gresham's  mind  was  never  more  active  than  during 
the  fifteen  months'  confinement.  He  watched  the  progress 
of  public  affairs  with  the  keenest  scrutiny.  That  I  could 
not  help  absorbing  much  of  these  matters  can  possibly  be 
understood. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
NEGRO   SUFFRAGE 


COLONEL       GRESHAM  S       MANY       VISITORS  —  THIRTEENTH 

AMENDMENT     SUBMITTED     TO     STATES     FOR     RATIFICATION 

ELIMINATE      SLAVERY      WITHOUT     COMPENSATION  —  LINCOLN 

RECONSTRUCTS   LOUISIANA SUMNER   OPPOSES   RECOGNITION 

OF    LOUISIANA    STATE    GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS    OPPOSED   TO 

NEGRO        SUFFRAGE SHERMAN'S        OPPOSITION LINCOLN'S 

ASSASSINATION GRESHAM    FOR    COMPLETE    AMNESTY THE 

FOURTEENTH   AMENDMENT   TO   THE    CONSTITUTION SOLDIER 

VOTE  RATIFIES  IT GRESHAM  A  SOLDIER  ORATOR — CANDI- 
DATE     FOR      CONGRESS — MORTON      AND      GRESHAM      OPPOSE 

NEGRO   SUFFRAGE GRESHAM  DEFEATED  FOR  CONGRESS  BUT 

ELECTED  STATE  AGENT — MORTON  ELECTED  TO  SENATE 
—  MORTON  VOTES  TO  INCORPORATE  NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  INTO 
RECONSTRUCTION  ACTS. 

T  OUISVILLE  was  an  important  stop-over  or  transfer- 
■"  ring  point  for  soldiers  coming  and  going  to  the  front. 
At  Louisville,  Jeflersonville,  and  New  Albany  there  were 
camps  and  hospitals.  In  addition  to  letters  which  came 
telling  of  the  movements  of  Sherman's  army,  the  March 
to  the  Sea  and  up  through  the  Carolinas,  we  had  visit- 
ors by  the  hundreds  —  officers,  private  soldiers,  and  army 
surgeons.  The  latter  were  especially  interested  in  General 
Gresham's  wound. 

Many  of  the  visitors  had  themselves  lost  an  arm  or  a  leg. 
Some  with  wooden  legs  were  on  the  way  back  to  the  front 
and  were  objects  of  envy.  One  big  strapping  fellow  came 
in  one  day  with  a  large  red  apple  for  the  invalid,  and  said : 
"Colonel,  I  am  the  man  you  made  march  all  day  tied  up 

313 


314       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

to  a  wagon.  I  was  sore  at  you  for  a  long  time,  but  it  is 
all  over  now."  Then  the  conversation  went  on  for  the 
balance  of  the  day  about  the  different  regiments,  brigades, 
divisions,  officers,  and  men,  and  that  unratified  Thirteenth 
Amendment. 

Among  the  private  soldiers  who  visited  us  were  Dixon 
and  Matthew  Pennington,  born  and  reared  on  the  "Under- 
ground Railroad."  A  youth  of  twenty  in  1864,  Dick  was 
a  veteran  of  three  years'  service,  and  suffering  from  his 
third  and  last  wound,  a  shot  through  the  left  knee,  which 
had  incapacitated  him.  A  veteran  at  eighteen,  laughed 
at  because  he  was  still  undersized,  this  story  was  told 
of  Matt.  In  a  hand-to-hand  contest,  a  Rebel  captain, 
when  Matt  leveled  his  musket  at  him  and  called  on  him 
to  surrender,  replied,  "111  be  damned  before  I  surrender 
to  a  "mere  boy!"  After  it  was  all  over,  the  officer  to 
whom  the  Rebel  surrendered  was  greatly  relieved  and 
said  to  him,  "I  was  afraid  the  little  devil  would  kill 
you,"  at  which  Matt  said,  with  an  oath,  "I  would  have 
done  so,  but  my  gun  was  n't  loaded  and  I  did  n't  have  no 
ammunition." 

Captain  Babbitt,  now  a  colonel,  came  to  visit  us  after 
the  surrender.  Bright,  as  he  always  was,  his  cough  had 
increased.  He  did  not  long  survive.  Captain  Norton, 
with  his  bright  red  hair  and  handsome. face,  came  on  his 
way  home  to  Wisconsin.  He  was  also  a  most  welcome 
visitor.  He  had  gone  on  the  March  to  the  Sea,  up  through 
the  Carolinas,  down  the  Avenue,  and  back  to  Natchez  to 
see  Miss  Nannie  Stanton,  but  in  the  meantime  another 
Yankee  officer  had  won  the  prize.  Never  wounded,  but 
on  the  go  day  and  night  as  a  staff  officer,  Norton  drew  on 
his  reserve  force  and  did  not  long  survive.  Captain  —  now 
Colonel  —  Duncan,  after  the  surrender,  also  spent  many 
days  with  us. 

Among  our  visitors  after  the  surrender  was  Colonel 
N.  H.  Owings,  who  had  only  attained  his  majority  when 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  315 

he  enlisted  in  1861.  He  called  everybody  except  General 
Sherman  by  his  first  name,  and  was  universally  addressed 
and  spoken  of  as  "Nick"  Owings.  Smart  as  a  steel  trap,  he 
had  been  a  clerk  in  the  Indiana  Republican  State  Central 
Committee  during  the  campaign  of  i860,  and  while  a  clerk 
in  the  Indiana  legislature  of  1861  he  became  acquainted 
with  and  was  always  a  devoted  friend  of  General  Gresham. 
From  a  clerical  position  in  Washington  he  enlisted  in  one 
of  the  United  States  volunteer  regiments.  During  the 
Atlanta  campaign,  the  March  to  the  Sea,  and  up  through 
the  Carolinas,  Colonel  Owings  served  part  of  the  time  on 
General  Sherman's  staff.  Some  of  the  stories  "Nick"  told 
of  the  freedom  with  which  General  Sherman  criticized  men 
and  measures,  were  entertaining.  One  will  illustrate  the 
workings  of  General  Sherman's  mind  and  the  character  of 
Colonel  Owings.  General  Sherman  was  always  opposed 
to  political  brigadiers.  Any  man  who  secured  promotion 
without  his  knowledge  or  consent  was  immediately  or- 
dered off  to  Washington  as  being  unfit  to  associate  with 
soldiers.  A  member  of  General  Sherman's  staff,  a  brother- 
in-law,  was  Lieutenant- Colonel  Charles  Ewing.  "Charlie 
Ewing,"  as  Nick  called  him,  "was  dying  to  have  a  brig- 
adier-general's commission.  We  could  get  one  through 
Senator  Sherman1  but  the  minute  the  commission  came 
under  such  circumstances,  we  feared  the  General  would 
fire  Charlie  off  to  Washington,  so  we  fixed  up  a  scheme  to 
get  General  Sherman's  endorsement.  One  day  after  dinner 
and  a  good  stiff  toddy,  while  William  Tecumseh  was  sign- 
ing a  lot  of  orders  and  papers,  his  signature  went  on  the 
recommendation  to  the  Secretary  of  War  to  make  Charlie 
Ewing  a  brigadier-general."  In  due  time  the  commission 
came  and  General  Sherman  was  furious.  "Go  off  to  Wash- 
ington! A  lieutenant  is  good  enough  for  me,"  is  the  way 
"Nick"  says  General  Sherman  greeted  Charlie's  promotion. 
"In  his  rage,  none  of  us  dared  tell  the  General  how  the 

1  John  Sherman,  brother  of  General  Sherman;  see  pages  497,  567,  592  and  632. 


316       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

trick  had  been  turned.  But  we  made  Charlie  a  brigadier, 
even  if  we  ended  his  career  in  the  field." 

As  a  story-teller  Colonel  O wings  was  one  of  the  best, 
and  his  laugh  was  infectious.  His  visit  did  the  invalid  a 
world  of  good.  With  Colonel  O wings  all  was  fair  in  war 
and  politics.  He  was  a  figure  in  the  national  conventions. 
He  made  and  lost  several  fortunes,  one  in  Colorado,  an- 
other in  the  territory  and  State  of  Washington,  where  he 
died  a  well-to-do  man.  His  wife  was  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Lady  Managers  of  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position at  Chicago  in  1892  and  1893. 

After  the  General  was  out  of  the  hospital,  "  Colonel  Ben" 
Gresham  came,  so  bright  and  cheerful  that  no  one  would 
suspect  he  was  suffering  from  a  mortal  wound.  There 
came  also  Cyrus  Hall,  the  precocious  Hedley,  still  a  boy  in 
years,  and  too  many  Illinois  men  to  mention.  I  remember 
General  Potts  of  Ohio,  whom  Babbitt  hated  so  cordially. 
It  was  Rawlins  morning,  noon,  and  night.  I  heard  more 
of  John  A.  Rawlins,  General  Grant's  adjutant-general, 
than  of  General  Grant  himself  and  all  the  balance  of  them 
put  together. 

Many  of  our  soldier  callers  were  lawyers,  some  of  whom 
were  afterwards  eminent  in  their  profession.  Colonel 
Conrad  Baker  of  one  of  the  Indiana  regiments,  then  pro- 
vost-marshal with  headquarters  at  Indianapolis,  was  one 
such.  He  was  one  of  our  dearest  friends.  In  September, 
1864,  Colonel  Baker  became  the  Union  or  Republican 
candidate  for  lieutenant-governor  of  Indiana  on  the  ticket 
on  which  Governor  Oliver  P.  Morton  was  the  candidate  for 
re-election.  Governor  Morton  campaigned  in  our  neigh- 
borhood but  never  came  to  see  us.  He  was  not  then  ad- 
vocating universal  negro  suffrage.  But  he  was  preparing 
—  as  he  did  —  to  displace  Henry  S.  Lane,  our  United  States 
senator.  Mr.  Lane  made  several  visits  to  New  Albany  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  visiting  us.  I  shall  always  appreciate 
his  kindness   and   sympathy.     He   sent   my   husband   the 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  317 

Congressional  Globe,  so  we  were  in  touch  with  all  questions 
which  had  grown  out  of  the  rebellion.  Besides,  we  had 
the  Louisville,  Indianapolis,  and  New  York  papers. 

One  of  my  husband's  regrets  was  that  he  could  not  go 
to  the  polls  to  vote  for  Mr.  Lincoln.  Among  our  callers 
was  General  Cravens,  our  congressman,  a  veteran,  of  the 
Mexican  War.  Although  he  had  voted  against  the  sub- 
mission of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  he  was  regarded  as 
a  war  Democrat,  and  had  been  defeated  for  nomination 
by  Michael  C.  Kerr.  Still,  General  Cravens  was  cam- 
paigning for  McClellan.  Of  his  own  volition  he  had 
espoused  my  husband's  side  against  Governor  Morton,  and 
had  protested  to  President  Lincoln  against  the  Gover- 
nor's efforts  to  have  Colonel  Gresham  dismissed  from 
the  service.  General  Cravens  returned  to  my  husband 
the  letter  of  thanks  Mr.  Gresham  had  written  to  him, 
which  was  a  statement  of  the  Gresham  side  and  Mr. 
Gresham's  opinion  of  the  Governor.  This  letter  was  de- 
livered into  my  keeping,  and  was  preserved  with  the  other 
original  Morton  papers  until  loaned  to  a  veteran,  who,  to 
my  astonishment,  destroyed  them  because  he  said  old 
sores  should  not  be  re-opened.  Many  would-be  historians 
share  this  veteran's  views.  I,  however,  entertain  a  dif- 
ferent opinion. 

Not  all  the  soldiers  —  for  many  were  Democrats  and 
drafted  men  —  were  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  re-election,  but  the 
volunteer  was  almost  universally  for  "Old  Abe."  The 
Democrats  had  a  strong  ticket,  headed  by  Joseph  E. 
MacDonald  for  governor,  and  for  lieutenant-governor  Gen- 
eral Mahlon  D.  Manson,  a  popular  man,  a  good  stumper, 
who  had  gone  out  as  Colonel  of  the  Tenth  Indiana  and 
won  his  star  in  the  field.  In  Kentucky,  men  like  John  M. 
Harlan  had  supported  the  Union  cause  in  1861,  and  not 
only  were  making  speeches  for  McClellan  but  had  time  to 
come  to  Indiana  and  make  the  strongest  and  most  effective 
speeches  against  Mr.  Lincoln.  As  Colonel  of  the  Tenth 
21 


318       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Kentucky  Volunteers,  John  M.  Harlan  was  one  of  the  first 
of  the  Kentuckians  to  enlist.  He  served  long  and  well, 
but  declined  a  brigadier's  commission  to  go  home  and  take 
care  of  his  father's  estate.  There  were  many  Kentuckians 
like  him,  who  having  finished  their  three  years'  service 
did  not  re-enlist.  Of  the  eighteen  Kentucky  regiments 
still  in  the  field  a  large  proportion  —  some  said  two- thirds 
—  voted  for  McClellan,  who  carried  Kentucky  by  a  large 
majority.  It  was  the  "nigger  question."  Slavery  was  still 
lawful  in  Kentucky,  but  business  conditions  were  chaotic. 
My  friends  the  Harney s  were  in  financial  distress,  but  were 
still  holding  on  to  their  slaves  and  their  newspaper.  It 
was  full  of  accounts  of  slaves  and  of  litigation  about  negroes. 
Following  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  and  Sherman's  March 
to  the  Sea,  the  resolution  to  amend  the  Constitution  — 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment  —  which  had  been  pending 
since  December  16,  1863,  and  had  failed  by  the  necessary 
two-thirds  to  pass  the  House,  was  again  brought  forward. 
As  Senator  Hendricks  had  feared,  and  as  my  husband  had 
predicted  to  the  veterans  when  he  was  urging  them  to  re- 
enlist,  congressmen  who  had  voted  against  it  changed  front 
or  ducked,  and  on  February  1,  1865,  the  Thirteenth  Amend- 
ment was  submitted  to  the  States  for  ratification,  but  with 
our  war  congressman  recorded  against  it.  February  13 
the  Indiana  legislature  ratified  it,  while  ten  days  later  the 
Kentucky  legislature  almost  unanimously  rejected  it.  The 
Kentuckians  were  insisting  on  compensation  before  they 
gave  up  their  slaves,  and  I  think  some  method  should  have 
been  devised,  as  might  have  been  done,  to  take  care  of  them 
because  of  the  loyalty  they  showed  in  1861  under  the  pledge 
the  National  government  then  made  that  it  would  not 
abolish  slavery.  Benjamin  H.  Bristow  was  one  of  the  few 
Kentucky  legislators  who  voted  to  ratify  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment.  He  was  a  slaveholder  and  came  from  an 
old  Kentucky  family  of  slaveholders  at  the  time  he  cast 
that  vote.     A  wound  had  taken  him  out  of  the  field  where 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  319 

he  and  Walter  Q.  Gresham  formed  a  friendship  that  never 
abated. 

But  as  the  war  progressed,  public  opinion  changed  the 
viewpoint  of  those  soldiers  who  visited  us  after  July  20, 
1864.  Every  vestige  of  African  slavery  must  be  eliminated 
from  the  Federal  Constitution  and  that,  too,  without  com- 
pensation. Babbitt  voiced  the  universal  sentiment :  "The 
time  was  when  we  wanted  to  pay  them  for  their  niggers, 
but  they  would  not  take  it.  After  all  the  money  that  has 
been  spent  and  the  bloodshed,  and  the  negro  practically 
free,  I  am  opposed  to  giving  them  a  dollar." 

In  a  limited  way,  to  those  blacks  who  had  been  good 
soldiers  and  were  educated  and  intelligent,  the  suffrage 
should  be  extended.  The  soldier  emphasized  the  fact  that 
this  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  idea.  I  heard  expressions  like 
these:  "Charles  Sumner  and  Thad  Stevens  will  never  be 
able  with  the  freedmen  to  rule  the  men  it  has  taken  us 
nearly  four  years  on  the  battlefield  to  put  down."  "Give 
the  negro  the  ballot,  and  you  will  give  the  Rebel  soldier 
two  votes  to  the  Union  soldier's  one."  Over  and  over 
again  I  heard  that  last  speech  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  referred  to, 
as  to  how  he  would  have  reconstructed. 

The  case  of  Lieutenant  John  R.  Piquet,  who  came  to 
us  after  the  surrender,  is  most  illuminating.  In  New 
Albany  there  was  a  family  of  light  mulattoes  whose  history 
went  back  to  territorial  days.  The  prejudice  against  the 
negro  barber  had  not  then  arisen.  As  one  of  the  Carters 
was  cutting  Colonel  Gresham' s  hair  he  sent  a  message  to 
Piquet  in  a  way  that  excited  my  husband's  curiosity. 
With  his  facility  to  cross-examine,  Colonel  Gresham 
learned  before  he  left  the  barber  shop  that  Piquet's  mother 
was  one  of  those  "high  yellow  women."  After  his  return 
to  the  front,  my  husband  sent  for  Piquet  and  delivered 
Carter's  message.  It  flashed  over  Piquet  that  his  secret 
was  known.  He  trembled  and  said,  "Colonel,  these  sol- 
diers won't  let  me  stay  in  the  ranks  with  them.     They  will 


320       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

shoot  me  the  minute  they  know  I  am  a  nigger."  "They 
will  never  know  it  unless  you  tell  them,"  was  the  response. 
Promotion  came.  In  a  short  time  after  the  close  of  our 
war  Piquet  lost  his  life  in  the  Juarez  insurrection  in  Mexico. 
With  his  amnesty  proclamation  of  December  8,  1863, 
as  a  guide,  Mr.  Lincoln,  by  the  time  Congress  met  in  De- 
cember, 1864,  had  reconstructed  Louisiana  to  the  extent 
of  organizing  a  State  government,  adopting  a  free  consti- 
tution with  suffrage  limited  to  those  who  were  qualified  to 
vote  in  i860,  and  had  elected  two  United  States  senators. 
From  his  sickbed  Walter  Q.  Gresham  wrote  to  men  in 
northern  Louisiana  who  applied  to  him  for  advice  to  go 
in  with  Mr.  Lincoln:  "Get  back  any  way  you  can  — 
only  get  back."  John  M.  Harlan  was  still  opposing  Mr. 
Lincoln's  plan  of  reconstruction.  In  his  speech  at  New 
Albany,  October  4,  1864,  he  said: 

He  holds  and  exercises  the  power  to  subvert  State  governments 
and  he  even  prescribes  the  terms  upon  which  people  may  vote. 
A  loyal  man  in  Alabama,  who  has  been  true  to  his  country 
and  has  been  a  soldier  in  the  War  of  181 2  and  the  Mexican  War, 
could  not  vote  in  re-establishing  civil  authority  in  that  State  unless 
he  would  first  take  Lincoln's  oath  to  become  an  Abolitionist. 
The  triumph  of  Abolition  would  be  the  triumph  of  a  spirit,  which 
in  order  to  effect  its  purpose  would  not  hesitate  to  trample  with 
impugnity  upon  constitutions  and  laws.  There  is  no  safety  in 
this  land  of  ours  except  in  rigid  adherence  to  law  —  no  safety  for 
life,  liberty,  or  property. 

Although  a  majority  in  the  Senate  were  for  recognizing 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Louisiana  State  government  and  admitting 
her  two  United  States  senators,  Charles  Sumner,  with 
the  aid  of  the  Democratic  senators  —  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions,—  was  able  to  cause  so  much  delay,  that  March 
5,  1865,  came  and  the  session  ended  with  Louisiana  still 
"out."  Sumner's  objection  was  that  Lincoln's  Louis- 
iana State  constitution  did  not  provide  for  unrestricted 
negro  suffrage,  while  the  Democratic  senators,  like  Thomas 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  321 

A.  Hendricks,  predicated  their  opposition  on  the  fact  that 
out  of  the  40,000  voters  in  Louisiana  in  i860  only  11,000 
in  1865  had  voted  to  ratify  the  new  constitution. 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  lived  —  with  the  soldiers  behind  him, 
as  they  were,  almost  to  a  man  —  the  radicals  in  Congress 
would  not  have  ruled.  Men  like  Benjamin  H.  Bristow 
and  John  M.  Harlan,  who  were  always  Union  men  and 
who  went  over  to  the  radicals,  would  have  been  glad  to 
stop  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  conservatism.  I  know  whereof  I 
write,  for  I  have  talked  with  them,  and  afterwards  I  said 
to  both  Bristow  and  Harlan:  "It  was  a  mistake.  I  told 
you  so."  On  political  lines  General  Grant  would  have 
followed  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  was  John  A.  Rawlins  who  swung 
General  Grant  over  to  unrestricted  enfranchisement.1  My 
husband's  intimacy  with  Rawlins  enabled  him  to  learn 
early  what  was  coming. 

Ida  Tarbell,  in  her  life  of  Lincoln,  tells  a  story,  or 
at  least  part  of  a  story,  the  whole  of  which  is  conclusive 
that  if  Mr.  Lincoln  had  lived,  General  Grant  would  have 
been  one  of  his  staunchest  supporters. 

Miss  Tarbell  says  that  J.  Russell  Jones  told  her  that 
he  —  Mr.  Jones — had  a  letter  from  General  Grant,  written 
from  Chattanooga  in  the  Fall  of  1863,  in  response  to  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Jones  to  General  Grant  enclosing  a  clipping  from 
the  New  York  Herald  suggesting  General  Grant  for  Presi- 
dent. In  this  letter,  Grant  stated  that  he  was  for  Lincoln 
and  his  policies  to  the  end,  and  would  not  even  permit  his 
name  to  be  mentioned  as  a  candidate  against  Mr.  Lincoln. 
This  letter,  Mr.  Jones  stated  a  number  of  times  in  my 
husband's  and  my  presence  at  the  dinner  table,  he  delivered 
to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  White  House  in  response  to  an  inti- 
mation from  Mr.  Lincoln  that  he  would  like  to  know  where 
Grant  stood  with  reference  to  his,  Lincoln's,  reelection. 

"You,  Jones,"  said  Lincoln,  "know  more  about  General 
Grant's  attitude  than  anybody  else."2     "Thereupon,"  said 

1  See  page  464.  2  See  page  344. 


322       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Mr.  Jones,  "I  pulled  out  of  my  pocket  the  letter  that 
General  Grant  had  written  me,  which  had  accidentally 
remained  in  my  pocket  after  its  receipt.  I  had  no  idea 
what  Mr.  Lincoln  wanted  with  me  when  he  sent  for  me  to 
come  to  Washington."1  Standing,  Mr.  Lincoln  read  the 
letter  very  carefully,  reached  down,  as  he  had  to,  Mr. 
Jones  being  a  very  small  man,  and  placing  a  hand  on  each 
of  Mr.  Jones's  shoulders,  said  what  Miss  Tarbell  does  not 
publish,  "Young  feller,  you'll  never  know  how  much  good 
this  does  me!"  Miss  Tarbell  would  create  the  impression 
that  Lincoln  was  indifferent  to  a  renomination. 

The  feeling  of  relief  that  followed  Lee's  surrender  was 
deadened  by  the  shock  of  the  assassination  of  President 
Lincoln.  The  grief  of  every  household  was  manifested  by 
swinging  black  bunting  from  the  front  windows.  Had  Jef- 
ferson Davis  been  a  big  man,  he  would  have  surrendered 
with  General  Lee  and  then  used  his  influence,  as  did  the 
commander  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  to  help  heal 
the  nation's  wounds.  A  soldier,  a  gentleman,  and  a  man 
not  afraid  to  die  would  not  have  hesitated  at  the  pains  and 
penalties  of  the  Confiscation  Acts.  However  this  may  be, 
surrender  might  have  saved  Lincoln's  assassination.  It 
would  certainly  have  done  away  with  the  belief  that  Davis 
was  a  party  to  it,  and  with  the  circulation  broadcast  through- 
out the  North  of  the  pictures  that  showed  the  late  President 
of  the  Confederate  States  in  a  woman's  garb  when  captured. 
I  am  relating  the  talk  and  beliefs  of  the  times. 

And  there  was  General  Sherman,  the  most  magnanimous 
man  in  the  North.  The  terms  he  granted  General  Johnston 
when  the  latter  surrendered  —  terms  that  Thaddeus  Stevens 
and  Secretary  Stanton  refused  to  approve,  terms  that  it  is 
claimed  even  Mr.  Lincoln  would  not  have  approved, — 
ought  to  make  the  Southern  people  revise  their  estimate  of 
General  Sherman.  He  proposed  the  recognition  of  the  exist- 
ing State  or  Rebel  governments.  Time  and  acquiescence 
on  the  part  of  the   Republicans  in  the  disfranchisement 

1  See  pages  139  and  140. 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  323 

of  the  negroes  have  vindicated  his  judgment.  And  yet 
the  vSouthern  people  do  not  understand  General  Sher- 
man. The  "Daughter's"  almost  have  spasms  at  the  men- 
tion of  his  name. 

Resentful  then,  never  did  General  Sherman  "get  back 
on  the  reservation";  that  is,  acquiesce  in  the  Republican 
party's  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  was  shown  when  General 
Grant  was  a  candidate  for  President  the  first  time.1 

At  this  time,  we  were  perhaps  in  closer  touch  with  con- 
ditions in  Mississippi  than  with  any  other  part  of  the  Union. 
The  correspondence  with  officers,  sutlers,  and  citizens  of 
Natchez  was  voluminous.  Colonel  Kent,  who  fought  the 
cotton  thieves  in  both  armies  and  had  begged  to  go  in  the 
Atlanta  campaign,  William  Coleman,  a  sutler,  and  Win- 
throp  Sargent  of  the  old  regime,  were  regular  correspond- 
ents.    Conditions  were  deplorable. 

May  4,  1865,  Lieutenant-General  Richard  Taylor,  a  son 
of  President  Zachary  Taylor,  who  had  been  so  severe  on 
the  Secessionists  in  1850,  surrendered  the  last  Confederate 
army  at  Meridian,  Mississippi.  On  May  10,  President 
Johnson  proclaimed  the  end  of  all  armed  resistance  and 
that  he  would  follow  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  of  reconstruction 
without  convening  Congress.  May  8,  1865,  Governor  Clark 
of  Mississippi  called  the  legislature  of  that  State  to  meet  at 
Jackson,  June  8,  1865,  and  sent  a  commission  to  Washing- 
ton to  assure  the  President  of  the  desire  of  Mississippi  to 
be  restored  to  the  Union.  Governor  Clark  also  issued  a 
proclamation  calling  on  the  people  of  Mississippi  to  accept 
the  results  of  the  war  in  good  faith.  Governor,  or  rather 
General  Clark,  was  a  one-legged  Confederate  who,  when  no 
longer  fitted  for  the  field,  had  been,  in  1863,  elected  Gover- 
nor of  Mississippi.  His  government  for  the  two  years  prior 
to  the  surrender  had  been  in  the  saddle.  After  the  surrender 
it  had  at  least  the  form  and  substance  of  civil  government. 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  would  have  taken  General  Clark  at  his 
word.     He  would  have  dealt  with  the  men  in  the  field  rather 

1  See  pages  344-S. 


[( 


H 


324       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

than  with  those  who  remained  at  home.  The  real  righting 
men  would  not  have  been  long  in  getting  together.  But  they 
were  not  then  in  control.  The  cordiality  that  Grant  and 
Lee  and  Sherman  and  Johnston  manifested  extended  to  the 
ranks.  My  husband  made  the  first  real  amnesty  speech 
that  was  delivered  at  a  soldiers'  reunion.1  It  was  so  heartily 
received  that  he  repeated  it  until,  with  General  Sherman's 
approval,  it  went  into  the  records  of  the  Society  of  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee. 

No  such  sentiments  at  first  animated  President  Johnson. 
He  proposed  to  make  treason  odious.  He  refused  to  permit 
the  Mississippi  legislature  to  meet  and  rejected  General, 
or  Governor,  Clark's  overtures.  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  believe, 
would  have  accepted  them.  President  Johnson  ordered 
the  Mississippi  legislature  dissolved  and  Governor  Clark 
removed  from  the  State  capitol  at  Jackson. 

May  29,  1865,  President  Johnson  issued  his  Amnesty 
Proclamation  as  supplemental  to  that  of  Mr.  Lincoln  of 
December  8,  1863.     It  did  not  extend  perfect  amnesty  to  all. 

As  illustrating  the  internal  conditions,  and  Walter  Q. 
Gresham's  disposition  to  make  it  easy  for  the  Southern 
men  to  get  back  to  the  old  relations,  I  quote  the  corre- 
spondence with  Frank  Surget,  who  was  rated  by  many 
as  one  of  the  "last  ditch"  men  in  Natchez  until  years 
afterwards,  when  after  his  death  I  produced  the  originals 

1  "The  hardships  and  sufferings  of  our  soldiers  for  the  four  long  years  of  bloody  war  have 
been  in  vain  if  we  shall  fail  to  establish  peace  and  concord  between  the  different  sections  of  our 
wide-spread  country.  We  fought  not  for  the  vain  purpose  of  displaying  our  prowess  in  the 
field,  not  to  gratify  feelings  of  sectional  hatred  or  resentment,  but  to  maintain  inviolate  the 
bonds  of  our  Union  and  free  institutions.  Our  enemies,  alike  with  ourselves,  were  the  de- 
scendants of  the  same  common  stock  —  our  countrymen,  many  of  them  our  kindred,  inherit- 
ing the  same  traditions,  and  owing  allegiance  to  the  same  Constitution  and  laws.  The  conflict 
of  arms  being  ended,  and  the  palm  of  victory  ours,  it  is  our  first  duty,  as  brave  and  mag- 
nanimous soldiers,  to  make  our  late  enemies  feel,  by  the  liberality  of  our  sentiments  and  the 
frankness  of  our  conduct,  that  their  return  to  their  allegiance  involves  neither  dishonor  nor 
humiliation;  that  the  passions  engendered  by  the  conflict  have  been  banished  from  our 
breasts,  and  that  hereafter  we  will  regard  as  common  enemies  those  who  attempt  to  fan 
the  flames  of  sectional  strife. 

"Let  it  not  hereafter  be  written  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  and  especially  of  the  glorious 
Army  of  the  Tennessee,  that  they  knew  how  to  meet  the  enemy  in  the  field,  but  were  not  able 
to  be  magnanimous  to  a  fallen  foe." 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  325 

in  Natchez.     One  of  Mr.  Surget's  brothers  surrendered  as 
a  member  of  General  Taylor's  staff. 

General  W.  Q.  Gresham,  Natchez,  July  18,  1865. 

Dear  Sir: — 
I  saw  Norton  [one  of  Mr.  Gresham's  staff  while  he  was  at 
Natchez]  here  about  ten  days  ago.  He  informed  me  you  were 
at  New  Albany.  I  have  a  favor  or  two  to  ask  of  you  which  you 
will  oblige  me  by  doing.  I  think  it  better  for  me  to  send  an  appli- 
cation to  the  President  for  a  pardon.  It  is  hardly  necessary,  I 
think,  for  me  to  do  so,  yet  I  had  better  be  on  the  safe  side,  having 
several  suits  to  bring,  and  I  may  be  accused  under  the  13th  article 
in  the  President's  last  Proclamation  for  having  given  a  few  hundred 
dollars  to  the  Confederates.  You  know  this  was  not  an  entirely 
voluntary  matter,  as  I  had  to  give  something  in  order  to  prevent 
them  from  destroying  the  only  place  I  had  left,  with  500  bales 
near  Woodville.  You  also  know  that  I  would  have  taken  the  oath 
at  the  time  Davis  did,  but  that  as  soon  as  it  was  known  outside 
that  I  had  done  so,  all  of  that  property  would  have  gone  up.  I 
told  you  at  that  time  that  such  was  my  reason  for  not  taking  the 
oath  and  it  was  satisfactory  to  you.  Davis's  property  was  all 
within  your  lines  or  near  them.    .    .    . 

Please  write  me  two  separate  notes,  as  the  subjects  are  differ- 
ent, and  forward  them  to  me  as  soon  as  possible. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

Frank  Surget. 

The  following  letter  was  written  in  bed  and,  at  my 
husband's  request,  I  saw  that  it  was  put  in  the  postofflce. 
It  went  into  the  files  of  the  War  Department  and  helped 
Frank  Surget  get  his  pardon.  The  last  paragraph  indicates 
the  corruption  of  the  times.  If,  in  his  desire  to  help  his 
friend,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  overstated  a  little  Mr.  Surget's 
loyalty,  I  hope  at  this  late  date  the  "  Reb"  will  not  lay  it  up 
against  Frank  Surget's  memory  nor  the  " Yankee"  against 
Walter  Q.  Gresham.  To  help  a  man  rated  as  a  Rebel 
took  courage,  and  rendered  the  man  who  wrote  such  a 
letter,  to  some  extent,  an  object  of  suspicion.  But  to 
every  appeal   my  husband  readily  responded. 


326       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

New  Albany,  Ind., 
July  26,  1865. 
Hon.  Andrew  Johnson, 

President  of  the  United  States. 

Sir: — From  about  the  1st  of  September,  1863,  to  about  the  1st 
of  February,  1864,  I  was  in  command  at  the  Post  or  District  of 
Natchez,  Mississippi,  during  all  of  which  time  F.  Surget,  Esq.,  a 
citizen  of  said  place,  quietly  remained  within  the  Federal  lines, 
conducting  himself  with  the  strictest  propriety.  I  became  well 
acquainted  with  him,  and  believe  him  to  be  an  honest  man  and 
a  gentleman. 

He  never  was  connected  with  the  Confederate  government, 
either  in  a  civil  or  military  capacity,  and  I  have  more  than  once 
heard  him  express  himself  as  being  opposed  to  secession  and  as 
having  no  confidence  in  the  success  of  the  rebellion. 

During  the  time  above  mentioned  he  told  me  how  he  was 
situated  —  that  he  had  already  lost  a  great  deal  of  property,  and 
that  he  had  one  or  more  plantations  outside  our  lines  on  which 
were  500  or  more  bales  of  cotton,  which  would  all  be  destroyed  if 
he  took  the  oath  then  required  by  President  Lincoln.  I  thought, 
under  the  circumstances,  he  did  right  and  so  told  him,  believing 
that  he  would  soon  have  an  opportunity  to  take  the  oath  and  save 
his  property.  I  believe  him  to  be  a  good,  loyal  man,  and  therefore 
earnestly  recommend  that  if  he  falls  within  any  of  the  exceptions 
in  your  late  Proclamation  a  pardon  be  granted  him. 

I  desire  to  state,  in  conclusion,  that  I  have  no  pecuniary 
interest  whatever  in  having  Mr.  Surget  pardoned,  and  that  I  do 
not  expect  to  be  profited,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  for  making 
this  recommendation. 

I  am,  Sir,  Very  respectfully, 

Your  obdt.  Svt., 

W.  Q.  Gresham,  Brig.-Genl. 

Perhaps  it  was  expecting  too  much,  or  it  may  have  been 
due  to  want  of  tact  on  President  Johnson's  part  —  he  could 
not  have  fared  worse  if  he  had  accepted  General  Clark's 
offer,  —  but  the  fact  is  that  the  Mississippi  Convention 
which  President  Johnson  assembled  in  August,  1865,  re- 
fused to  ratify  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  or  abolish  slavery. 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  327 

Instead,  some  of  the  members  talked  of  going  to  Kentucky 
and  Maryland  and  purchasing  negroes.  Others  said,  before 
they  would  ratify  or  abolish  slavery  by  their  State  consti- 
tution they  should  be  paid  for  their  negroes  who  had  been 
freed  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  which  did  not  ap- 
ply to  Kentucky  and  Maryland.  The  Thirteenth  Amend- 
ment was  still  without  the  sanction  of  the  requisite  number 
of  States,  so  slavery  still  existed  in  Kentucky  and  also  in 
Maryland.  In  vain  they  were  reminded:  "We  have  cer- 
tainly affirmatively  and  directly  sworn  to  support  the 
proclamation  of  the  President  and  the  laws  of  Congress 
with  reference  to  emancipation."  They  were  also  asked: 
"Does  any  man  suppose  that  those  who,  regardless  of  the 
offer  of  amnesty,  refused  to  accept  payment  when  ten- 
dered, will  meet  with  favor  in  preferring  a  claim  to  com- 
pensation?" Generals  Sherman,  Blair,  Logan,  and  Cox 
asked  only  that  the  States  forever  abolish  slavery,  leav- 
ing to  each  State  the  regulation  of  citizenship.  "Let  the 
existing  state  of  things  in  our  midst  be  kept  up  a  few 
years  and  we  shall  witness,  I  fear,  the  enfranchisement 
of  the  negro." 

The  Mississippi  legislature  that  met  October  2,  1865, 
not  only  rejected  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  but  refused 
in  the  face  of  the  recommendations  of  Governor  B.  G.  Hum- 
phries—  another  gallant  Confederate  soldier,  —  to  admit 
negroes  to  testify  in  court.  Instead,  it  passed  what  was 
called  the  "Black  Code,"  designed  to  nullify  the  effect  of 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment  if  adopted. 

The  Thirteenth  Amendment  imposed  no  restraint  on 
the  States;  it  did  not  even  make  the  freedman  a  citizen 
to  the  extent  he  could  sue  in  the  courts.  It  only  abol- 
ished "chattel  slavery."  On  this  exposition  of  it  by 
Secretary  of  State  Seward,  South  Carolina  in  November, 
1865,  ratified  it  and  then  proceeded  to  pass  the  "Black 
Code,"  designed  to  reduce  the  freedmen  to  a  state  of  serf- 
dom or  peonage.    Alabama  and  Florida  soon  followed  South 


328       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Carolina  in  ratification,  and  on  December  18,  1865,  Sec- 
retary Seward  announced  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  rati- 
fied by  the  requisite  number  of  States. 

Aside  from  the  negro,  we  needed  a  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment. One  of  the  defects  of  the  old  Constitution  was  that 
it  did  not  define  citizenship  in  our  dual  system  of  govern- 
ment. The  Eleventh  Amendment,  which  prohibited  a  suit 
against  a  State,  was  a  paradox,  contrary  to  the  system 
the  fathers  evolved.  Surely  Washington  contemplated  the 
States,  and  the  State  officers  should  be  made  to  live  up. to, 
if  not  enforce,  the  National  law,  constitution  and  statute. 
It  was  the  immunity  from  State  control  that  enabled  the 
Abolitionist  lawyer  to  render  the  tenure  of  property  in  man 
so  insecure.  The  fiction  of  the  immunity  of  a  State  from 
a  suit  by  an  individual  is  still  preserved.  A  governor  of  a 
State  cannot  be  sued,  but  a  Federal  or  State  court  may,  by 
way  of  a  mandamus  or  an  injunction, —  a  ring,  as  it  were, 
inserted  in  the  nose  of  the  man  who  may  happen  to  be 
governor, —  lead  or  force  that  man  to  respect  the  natural 
and  constitutional  rights  of  the  individual  or  corporation, 
notwithstanding  a  State  statute  may  authorize,  indeed,  may 
command,  the  confiscation  of  the  property  or  the  imprison- 
ment of  the  individual  without  a  fair  trial. 

Saith  the  Fourteenth  Amendment : 

No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge 
the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its 
jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws. 

But  such  is  man's  inhumanity  to  man  that  quite  aside 
from  the  negro,  whom  it  was  primarily  designed  to  protect, 
by  describing  him  as  a  person,  lawyers  of  practical  expe- 
rience will  tell  you  that  the  courts  are  more  willing  to  extend 
the  protection  or  the  guarantee  of  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment to  a  corporation  than  to  a  white  man.  And  this,  too, 
although  the  word  corporation  is  not  in   the   Fourteenth 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  329 

Amendment.  By  the  use  of  the  word  person,  the  courts 
held  that  Congress  and  the  people  intended  to  include  cor- 
porations, although  the  word  person  in  the  original  draft 
of  the  Constitution  and  the  first  ten  amendments  the  courts 
held  did  not  include  the  corporations.  Indeed,  as  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  said,  the  war  legislated,  but  it  did  not,  as  he 
also  said  and  held  as  a  judge,  destroy  the  States. 

Andrew  Johnson's  first  message  was  that  of  a  states- 
man. By  the  time  the  Congress  assembled,  December  5, 
1865,  he  had  seen  the  light;  he  was  no  longer  for  making 
treason  odious.  Whoever  wrote  his  message  to  that  Con- 
gress —  and  it  by  no  means  follows  that  simply  because  it 
was  in  the  handwriting  of  George  Bancroft,  the  historian, 
it  was  Mr.  Bancroft's  conception  and  not  that  of  Andrew 
Johnson, — the  fact  is,  that  President  Johnson  adhered  to 
the  policies  therein  set  forth.  "It  is  not  competent  for  the 
general  government  to  extend  the  elective  franchise  in  the 
several  States.  The  freedmen  must  be  protected  in  their 
liberty,  their  property,  their  right  to  contract  and  to  labor." 

In  the  face  of  Secretary  Seward's  construction  of  the 
recently  ratified  Thirteenth  Amendment,  and  the  resolution 
of  John  A.  Bingham,  a  Republican  member  of  Congress 
from  Ohio,  introduced  two  days  after  the  message  was 
read  to  carry  into  effect  its  recommendations  by  way  of  a 
Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  extraordinary  that  a  lawyer  like  Senator  Lyman 
Trumbull,  the  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the 
Senate,  should,  with  the  support  of  senators  like  Sumner, 
Wade,  and  Doolittle,  and  members  of  Congress  like  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  James  G.  Blaine,  and  Roscoe  Conkling,  a 
few  days  later  by  an  amendment  to  the  Freedmen 's  Bureau 
Bill  and  Civil  Rights  Bill  insist  on  unlimited  negro  suffrage 
and  on  visiting  the  State  judges  with  penalties  for  obeying 
the  laws  of  their  States,  which  prohibited  negroes  testifying 
in  court.  Still  more  extraordinary  is  it  that  such  men 
would  quarrel  with  a  President  for  vetoing  such  measures 


330       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

as  unconstitutional,  there  not  yet  being  any  Fourteenth 
Amendment. 

That  something  more  was  involved  in  the  late  strife 
than  the  mere  freeing  of  certain  slaves,  had  occurred  to  many 
of  the  men  of  previous  legal  training  who  had  had  experience 
in  putting  down  the  rebellion.  They  had  their  views  and 
their  experiences.  Certainly  those  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
had  been  different  in  the  Natchez  district  from  those  of 
any  man  in  Congress. 

Mere  learning  and  ability  to  argue  do  not  make  a  states- 
man. Many  men,  says  Lord  Macaulay,  by  reason  of  their 
ability  to  argue  fail  to  reach  any  conclusion,  not  to  mention 
the  correct  one.  Their  less  gifted  fellows,  but  with  keener 
perceptions,  hit  it  off  across  lots,  like  a  woman,  and  land 
right.  In  his  life  of  Lyman  Trumbull,  Horace  White  con- 
fesses that  he  and  Senator  Trumbull  were  mistaken  in  con- 
tending that  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  as  Trumbull 
finally  drafted  it,  conferred  unlimited  power  on  Congress  in 
the  late  rebellious  States.  He  also  is  mistaken  in  stating 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  have  failed  as  Johnson  did. 

Twenty  years  later,  while  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was 
United  States  circuit  judge  and  Lyman  Trumbull  and  ex- 
Senator  Doolittle  of  Wisconsin  —  who  broke  with  his  party 
and  joined  with  Trumbull  in  voting  against  Johnson's 
impeachment  —  were  practicing  attorneys  in  that  court, 
I  heard  them  and  others  discuss  Andrew  Johnson,  "the 
impeachment,"  and  the  Thirteenth  and  the  Fourteenth 
Amendments,  as  the  lawyers  say,  up  one  side  and  down  the 
other.  Of  the  two,  Mr.  Doolittle  seemed  the  brighter  and 
quicker.  Able  and  learned,  Judge  Trumbull  did  not  always 
see  things  until  they  had  passed  him.  But  when  he  saw 
his  mistake  he  hesitated  not  to  make  amends.  Doolittle 
broke  to  Johnson's  support  sooner  than  Trumbull. 

One  evening  at  dinner  in  1890,  my  husband  said:  "If 
the  author  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  ever  knew,  he  has 
forgotten  how  to  try  an  ejectment  suit."     I  know  enough 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  331 

about  an  ejectment  suit  to  know  that  the  plaintiff  if  he 
recovers  at  all  must  recover  on  the  strength  of  his  own 
title.  Continuing,  Judge  Gresham  said :  ' '  Yesterday  morn- 
ing Judge  Trumbull  rested  his  case  without  proving  an  es- 
sential link  in  his  chain  of  title.  Trude,1  for  the  defendant, 
— it  struck  me  for  the  purpose  of  misleading  Judge  Trum- 
bull and  getting  him  where  even  I  could  not  help  him,  — 
made  a  great  showing  for  the  defense.  Judge  Trumbull 
came  back  on  the  rebuttal  but  still  he  did  not  supply  the 
missing  link.  Had  he  been  a  young  man  I  would  have  told 
him  what  to  do.  Instead  I  said,  'Gentlemen,  I  have  some 
matters  in  chambers  I  would  like  to  dispose  of  this  after- 
noon. It  will  accommodate  me  if  you  will  let  the  argument 
of  this  case  to  the  jury  go  over  until  to-morrow  morning.' 
All  looked  surprised  but  consented.  This  morning  Judge 
Trumbull  asked  leave  to  supply  the  missing  link,  which 
was  granted,  and  we  made  short  work  of  his  case." 

But  going  back  to  1866,  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions  of  the  Indiana  State 
Convention,  which  met  at  Indianapolis  on  the  2 2d  of  Feb- 
ruary, took  the  lead  in  siding  with  Andrew  Johnson  and 
Congressman  Bingham  of  Ohio  against  Sumner,  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  Trumbull,  and  the  radical  lawyers.  There  was  a 
contest,  but  the  majority  and  the  controlling  men  on  that 
committee  were  soldiers.  General  Benjamin  Harrison  was 
one  of  its  members.  Radical  by  nature,  he  was  too  good  a 
lawyer  to  line  up  with  "Thad  Stevens."  While  he  would 
not  lead  in  an  attack  on  Governor  Morton,  who  was  sup- 
posed to  be  —  as  he  was  —  with  the  radicals,  General  Har- 
rison always  supported  opposition  to  the  "war  governor." 
The  resolutions  indorsed  Congressman  Bingham's  resolu- 
tion for  a  Fourteenth  Amendment;  that  is,  to  confer  on  the 
National  government  the  power  to  protect  the  life,  liberty, 
and  property  of  the  freedmen,  which  was  the  lawyer's  way 

1  Trude  was  one  of  the  best  trial  lawyers  who  ever  stood  before  judge  or  jury.  He  defended 
the  Chicago  newspapers  in  the  libel  suits  that  were  brought  against  them. 


332       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  making  them  citizens  but  not  voters.  The  resolution 
demanded  that  the  United  States  government  should  make 
emancipation  complete;  that  no  State  legislation  should 
be  tolerated  that  was  designed  to  keep  the  blacks  as  a  sub- 
ject and  servile  race;  that  the  Constitution  should  be  so 
amended  as  to  exclude  representation  while  the  right  of 
suffrage  was  denied  to  any  portion  of  the  people;  that  the 
powers  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion  should  be  held  in 
abeyance  so  long  as  the  public  safety  demanded  it.  A 
speedy  trial  was  demanded  for  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was 
still  held  a  prisoner  in  Fortress  Monroe.  This  was  a  way 
of  saying,  "Turn  him  loose,"  as  was  subsequently  done, 
when  it  was  known  the  government  was  without  the  evi- 
dence to  convict  him  on  the  charge  of  complicity  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  assassination. 

John  A.  Bingham  pressed  the  radicals,  Stevens  and 
Sumner,  so  hard  in  the  debates  in  Congress  that  they,  all 
except  Sumner,  came  to  his  way  of  thinking.1  April  13, 
1866,  Thaddeus  Stevens  adopted  Bingham's  plan,  that  there 
must  be  a  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  Of  course  Stevens  added  some  amend- 
ments. One  was  a  definition  of  citizenship.  "All  persons 
born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States  and  subject  to  the 
jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and 
of  the  State  wherein  they  reside."  And  while  partisanship 
may  have  been  a  potent  factor,  as  Horace  White  says, 
in  the  framing  and  adoption  of  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment, that  partisanship  —  and  it  was  not  all  on  one  side  — 
is  obsolete.     The  part  which  we  have  quoted,  and  which 

1  "I  might  say  here  without  the  least  fear  of  contradiction,  that  there  is  scarcely  a  state  in 
the  Union  which  does  not,  by  its  constitution  or  by  its  statute  laws,  make  some  discrimination 
on  account  of  race  or  color,  between  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  respect  of  civil  rights. 
But  by  act  of  Congress  you  can't  strike  down  these  discriminations.  .  .  .  The  law  in  every 
state  should  be  just:  it  should  be  no  respecter  of  persons.  ...  I  would  remedy  that  not 
by  an  arbitrary  assumption  of  power,  but  by  amending  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
expressly,  preventing  the  states  from  any  such  abuse  of  power  in  the  future." 

In  conclusion,  Bingham  quoted  Chancellor  Kent  on  the  necessity  of  preserving  our  dual 
form  of  government:  "It  is  to  the  state  to  protect  life,  liberty,  and  property  that  we  must 
look  in  the  first  instance." 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  333 

Bingham  wrote,  squared  our  dual  system  of  government  for 
the  first  time  with  the  natural,  inherent,  and  inalienable 
rights  of  man  as  Otis  first  applied  them  and  as  set  forth  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  But  with  all  the  par- 
tisanship it  did  not  make  the  freedmen  voters.  It  did  not 
confer  the  ballot  on  the  freedmen.  Sumner's  amendments 
to  that  effect  were  voted  down.  That  the  " Dough-faces" 
and  the  Southern  brigadiers  were  mistaken  in  rejecting  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  is  manifest  when  we  consider  that 
Thaddeus  Stevens  said:  ''Accept  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment and  I  will  vote  to  admit  your  senators  and  congress- 
men." June  16,  1866,  Congress  submitted  it  to  the  States 
for  ratification. 

Michael  C.  Kerr,  the  Democratic  member  of  Congress 
from  our  district  —  which  was  then  the  second — voted 
against  submitting  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
States  for  ratification.  The  convention  which  renominated 
Mr.  Kerr  on  the  28th  day  of  June,  1866,  while  Congress 
was  still  in-  session,  declared  against  the  Fourteenth  or  any 
other  Amendment,  and  indorsed  President  Johnson's  course 
in  demanding  the  admission  of  the  late  rebellious  States 
without  condition.  It  declared  that  the  late  war  on  the 
part  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  became  just 
and  necessary  to  save  the  Union  from  disruption  and  the 
Union  from  overthrow,  but  that  now  the  union  of  the 
States  should  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name  be  restored. 

Against  his  wishes,  General  Gresham  was  substituted  as  ; 
the  Union  party  candidate  for  Congress  in  the  Second  Indiana 
Congressional  District,  when  W.  T.  Spicely,  who  had  come 
out  of  the  army  as  Colonel  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Indiana 
Volunteers,  "declined  the  nomination  for  business  reasons." 
The  Democrats  charged  that  the  real  reason  was  that  the 
Colonel  was  still  a  Democrat,  had  voted  for  Breckenridge, 
and  had  been  a  member  of  the  Lecompton  Convention  in 
Kansas.  The  Colonel  retorted  that  he  was  against  the 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  and  that  he  would  stand  by 
22 


334       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  speech  Gresham  had  made  in  nominating  him  —  which 
it  was  said  by  others  was  a  better  exposition  of  the  Four- 
teenth Amendment  than  Governor  Morton  had  made  a 
few  days  before.  In  his  speech  of  acceptance,  in  his  joint 
debates  with  Colonel  Cyrus  L.  Dunham  —  a  good  lawyer 
who  had  made  a  fine  record  in  command  of  the  Twenty- 
ninth  Indiana  Volunteers,  —  and  with  General  John  T. 
Cravens,  before  Mr.  Kerr  returned  home,  and  in  his  joint 
discussion  with  Mr.  Kerr,  Judge  Gresham  made  his  po- 
sition clear,  only  incidentally  waving  the  " Bloody  Shirt." 
He  said: 

I  like  the  people  of  the  South  to-day  better  than  I  did  six 
1/  years  ago,  but  I  do  not  want  them  to  return  to  their  allegiance 

without  a  guaranty  to  the  loyal  people  of  this  country  that  the 
war  will  not  have  to  be  fought  over.  Whenever  the  South  accepts 
the  Amendment  proposed,  I  shall  cheerfully  give  my  vote  to  admit 
her  representatives  in  Congress.  They  abandoned  their  places; 
and  now,  with  assurance  almost  equal  to  that  with  which  they 
left,  they  come  back  and  demand  a  restoration  of  their  seats  in 
Congress.  And  that  same  party,  which  stood  in  all  its  power  and 
looked  complacently  on  their  going  out,  is  clamorous  in  favor  of 
granting  their  request,  arguing  that  the  moment  we  conquered 
them  we  restored  them  to  their  former  loyalty,  and  hence  they 
were  qualified  for  their  former  positions. 

This  same  party  in  1864  declared  the  war  a  failure  and  its 
prosecution  unconstitutional.  Now  they  retract  those  words  and 
say  the  soldiers  saved  the  Union,  but  that  their  representatives 
in  Congress  (the  government  that  could  suppress  rebellion  cannot 
legislate  against  its  repetition)  remove  the  cause  of  the  difference 
and  secure  the  fruits  of  victory.  The  statement  of  the  case  car- 
ries with  it  the  refutation  of  their  conclusion. 

The  Union  party,  on  the  contrary,  says  the  Union  was  not 
and  cannot  be  dissolved,  except  by  successful  revolution,  that  the 
close  of  the  Rebellion  found  the  rebellious  States  "without  civil 
government,"  and  that  by  their  treason  the  people  of  these  States 
succeeded  in  getting  out  of  their  relations  to  the  Federal  govern- 
ment; that  they  exchanged  their  old  and  loyal  for  a  new,  disloyal 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  335 

relation ;  that  they  forfeited  their  civil  rights  under  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  voting  them  rights,  we  have  the 
power  to  demand  terms  by  way  of  security  for  the  future. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  is  to  do  this: 

It  is  legal  and  magnanimous;  such  that  loyal  men  can  accede 
to  and  only  disloyal  reject.  The  first  section  is  simply  to  protect 
negroes  in  their  dealings  or  contracts  with  Southern  white  men. 
It  simply  secures  to  all  persons  natural  and  civil  rights ;  it  does  not 
confer  political  privileges.  It  does  not  confer  suffrage,  only  citi- 
zenship. It  is  just  as  proper  to  say  it  confers  suffrage  on  white 
women  and  children,  or  on  negro  women  and  children,  as  on  ne- 
gro men.  Second,  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  is  to  prevent  the 
Southern  States  from  having  a  representation  in  Congress  for 
their  negro  population  and  yet  deprive  the  negro  of  the  ballot. 
Third,  to  cause  the  Rebels  to  give  some  evidence  of  their  loyalty 
before  being  admitted  to  all  the  rights  of  loyal  citizens.  Fourth, 
to  guarantee  the  payment  of  the  war  debt  and  provide  that  the 
Rebel  debt  should  not  be  paid. 

In  discussing  the  second  section,  he  showed  that  the 
Democratic  party — including  his  competitor,  Mr.  Kerr, 
who  he  said  was  his  personal  friend — intimated  that  the 
South  should  now  have  thirty  members  of  Congress  rep- 
resenting her  negro  population. 

The  party  that  prates  about  this  being  a  white  man's  govern- 
ment not  only  asserts  that  the  Southern  Rebels  shall  be  restored 
to  all  their  rights,  but  they  shall  have  thirty  negro  representatives 
in  Congress. 

One  Confederate  soldier  should  not  be  permitted  to  be  equal 
to  two  Northern  loyal  soldiers  at  the  ballot  box.  As  it  now  tc***^ 
stands,  60,000  white  people  in  a  district  in  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
together  with  60,000  negroes,  send  a  representative  to  Congress, 
while  here  it  takes  120,000  white  people  to  do  the  same,  so  that 
any  way  you  may  fix  it,  the  vote  of  one  Rebel  soldier  is  equal  to 
the  vote  of  two  loyal  soldiers  of  the  North.  And  yet  they  de- 
nounce us  as  Abolitionists  and  advocates  of  social  equality.  The 
men  that  aided  and  abetted  those  who  fought  against  the  govern- 
ment are  fighting  that  this  unequal  representation  shall  continue. 


336       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

I  will  say  unequivocally  that  I  am  opposed  to  it.  If,  as  the 
Democrats  say,  this  is  a  white  man's  government,  why  are  they 
insisting  on  representation  for  the  negroes  of  Mississippi?  The 
Democratic  party  is  connected  by  ties  of  consanguinity,  as  is  mani- 
fested by  the  mulattoes  with  the  negroes  as  is  no  other  political 
organization. 

The  Union  party  has  no  disposition  to  make  the  negro  equal 
to  the  white  man,  and  its  members  have  no  fears  that  he  ever 
would  be  their  equal.  I  believed  the  whites  to  be  a  superior  race, 
contrary  to  the  belief  of  my  Democratic  brethren,  as  evinced  in 
the  terrible  alarm  about  the  blacks  becoming  their  equals,  and 
their  eternal  cry  of  having  laws  enacted  to  hold  them  back.  They 
seem  to  believe  that,  now  the  negro  is  free,  he  would  improve 
rapidly;  that  the  good  Democrats  would  soon  be  equaled  or  sur- 
passed by  him,  unless  his  advancement  was  checked  by  law. 
Instead  of  attempting  to  check  his  progress,  all  the  humane  and 
Christian  considerations  as  well  as  public  safety  and  prosperity 
demanded  that  the  negro  be  given  the  due  and  equal  protection 
of  the  law. 

But  giving  the  negroes  protection  under  the  law  was 
different  from  making  them  voters.  "It  is  not  logical  to 
argue  that  because  when  I  was  very  young,  and  before  I 
knew  the  objects  of  the  Know-nothing,  I  opposed  granting 
suffrage  to  the  foreigner,  the  Irishman,  and  German,  there- 
fore I  am  for  negro  suffrage.  I  admit  I  never  was  an  advo- 
cate of  unlimited  suffrage." 

In  the  joint  discussion  with  Colonel  Dunham  before 
Congress  adjourned  and  before  Mr.  Kerr  got  home,  this 
question  was  put  up  to  the  Colonel:  "Did  not  Mr.  Kerr 
defeat  you  for  the  nomination  because  he  [Kerr]  was  a 
member  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  and  you 
[Dunham]  were  not,  but  were  at  the  front  with  your  regi- 
ment?" Colonel  Dunham  said  this  was  an  unfair  question 
and  he  would  not  answer  it. 

In  the  discussion  with  Mr.  Kerr  it  was  shown  by  the 
testimony  taken  before  the  military  committee  and  by 
the  statements  of  Horace  Heffron,  that  on  March  8,  1863, 


NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  337 

Kerr  was  initiated  into  the  order  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  and 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle  in  Goff 's  saddlery  shop  in  New 
Albany. 

Jefferson  Davis  had  commissioned  Horace  Heffron  a 
major-general  in  the  Confederate  army,  and  early  in  1863 
General  Heffron  started  out  to  organize  an  army  in  south- 
ern Indiana.  The  same  organization  was  at  work  in  southern 
Ohio  and  Illinois.  One  of  the  plans  was  to  kill  Governor 
Morton,  release  the  prisoners  in  Camp  Morton,  and  turn 
the  State  over  to  the  Confederacy.  Undoubtedly  many 
men  were  brought  into  the  organization  without  knowing 
its  ultimate  object.  Until  the  time  should  arrive  to  come 
out  in  the  open,  enlistment  in  the  Union  army  was  to  be 
discouraged  and  appeals  made  to  those  in  the  army  to 
desert.  In  the  discussion  with  Colonel  Dunham,  my 
husband  read  one  of  the  Colonel's  letters  written  to  the 
Governor,  giving  him  specific  instances  in  which  appeals 
were  coming  to  men  in  his  regiment  to  desert. 

At  many  places  there  were  personal  conflicts  but  they 
never  stopped  a  meeting.  A  large  body  of  mounted  and 
armed  ex-soldiers,  headed  by  the  "Teagardens,"  came  to  a 
joint  meeting  in  Orange  County  with  a  banner,  "Loyal 
men  vote  for  Gresham,  traitors  vote  for  Kerr."  And  it  was 
with  difficulty  they  were  prevailed  on  as  a  personal  favor 
to  Mr.  Gresham,  to  allow  Mr.  Kerr  to  speak.  At  Utica, 
in  Clark  County,  the  opposition  filled  the  hall  and  said 
my  husband  should  not  be  allowed  to  speak.  He  climbed 
in  at  one  of  the  windows,  so  one  of  Henry  Watterson's  re- 
porters afterwards  said,  "laid  a  revolver  on  the  table,  and 
made  the  bitterest  campaign  speech  that  was  ever  heard 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio." 

I  listened  to  some  of  the  speeches  and  think  my  'hus- 
band erred  in  being  too  bitter.     Sometimes  he  would  begin       U 
his  speech:     "Mr.  Kerr  served  in  one  army,  I  in  another." 
I  heard  one  of  these  speeches.     The  next  morning  at  break- 
fast I  said,  "If  all  the  men  who  were  in  Mr.  Kerr's  army 


// 


338       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

vote  for  him,  you  are  beaten."  He  answered:  "I  can't 
be  elected  and  I  don't  expect  to  be,  but  I  can  lead  and  drive 
enough  of  the  soldiers  to  vote  the  State  and  legislative 
tickets  to  enable  us  to  ratify  the  Fourteenth  Amendment." 

The  membership  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  or  Knights  of 
the  Golden  Circle  in  southern  Indiana  was  large.  It  in- 
cluded practically  all  the  Democrats  who  had  not  been  in 
the  Union  army,  and  they  made  a  majority. 

At  one  of  the  joint  discussions  Mr.  Kerr  lost  his  temper 
and  denounced  General  Heffron  as  a  liar.  Then  General 
Heffron  and  a  lot  of  the  Knights  announced  their  purpose 
of  voting  for  Gresham,  and  they  undoubtedly  did  so. 
Years  afterwards  it  was  said  that  Mr.  Kerr  was  one  of  the 
men  who  disclosed  to  Governor  Morton  the  treasonable 
character  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle.  Had  that 
statement  been  made  in  1866,  Gresham  would  undoubtedly 
have  defeated  Kerr.  My  father  belonged  to  the  Knights, 
never  denied  it,  and  voted  for  Kerr,  but  it  made  not  the 
slightest  friction  with  my  husband. 

By  iterating  and  reiterating  the  statement  that  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  conferred  negro  suffrage  and  that 
the  radicals  would  control  the  Republican  organization, 
some  of  the  soldiers  in  southern  Indiana,  of  Democratic 
antecedents  and  a  majority  of  the  voters,  were  held  against 
the  Republican  organization.  At  the  same  time,  George 
D.  Prentice  in  the  Louisville  Journal,  supplemented  by  the 
Courier,  again  published  by  General  Simon  Bolivar  Buck- 
ner  in  Louisville  after  an  intermission,  was  arguing  against 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment  because  they  said  it  conferred 
negro  suffrage. 

In  his  canvassing  my  husband  had  the  aid  of  Benjamin 
H.  Bristow  and  John  M.  Harlan,  the  Kentucky  lawyers 
who  afterwards  became  famous.  In  addition  to  canvassing 
his  own  district,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  sent  up  to  Shelby- 
ville  and  to  Senator  Hendricks'  old  congressional  district, 
to  expound  to  the  soldiers  the  Fourteenth  Amendment. 


NEGRO     SUFFRAGE 


339 


Flags  fluttered  in  the  breezes,  the  bands  played  while  the 
Democratic  soldier  was  worked  right  up  in  front  of  the  plat- 
form from  which  hung  extracts  in  large  letters  from  the 
speech  which  Senator  Hendricks  had  made  in  February, 
1863,  in  which  he  was  urging  the  soldiers  not  to  re-enlist, 
and  deprecating  the  war  as  an  Abolitionist  war.  Then  the 
soldier  speaker  on  crutches  went  at  them,  and  it  is  said  the 
returns  showed  that  he  got  every  Democratic  soldier,  even  in 
Senator  Hendricks'  home  town  of  Shelby ville,  to  vote  for 
members  of  the  legislature  who  would  vote  to  ratify  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment. 

On  a  normal  vote  the  Second  Indiana  Congressional  Dis- 
trict was  then  4,000  Democratic,  and  although  many  Ken- 
tuckians  came  to  our  side  of  the  river  to  vote  for  Mr.  Kerr 
and  against  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  Mr.  Kerr's  ma- 
jority was  cut  to  1,750  and  the  Democratic  State  and  leg- 
islative tickets  suffered  accordingly.  The  Union  party, 
as  it  was  then  almost  universally  called,  elected  its  State 
ticket  and  a  working  majority  of  the  legislature.  When 
the  legislature  assembled  in  January,  1867,  it  ratified  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment,  displaced  our  friend  Henry  S. 
Lane,  elected  Oliver  P.  Morton  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
and  Walter  Q.  Gresham  State  Agent.  The  handling  of 
the  State's  finances  took  Mr.  Gresham  often  to  New  York, 
where  the  interest  on  the  State  debt  was  payable,  and 
where  the  firm  of  Winslow,  Lanier  &  Company  was  then, 
and  continued  to  be,  the  State's  fiscal  agent.  In  the  man- 
agement of  the  State's  finances,  which  were  then  involved, 
Walter  Q.  Gresham  broadened  his  knowledge  of  finance, 
which  was  always  sound. 

Governor  Morton  was  no  sooner  in  his  seat  in  the  Sen- 
ate in  1867  than  he  voted  to  incorporate  negro  suffrage  into 
the  Reconstruction  Acts.  The  Fourteenth  Amendment  had 
not  then  been  ratified  by  the  requisite  number  of  States. 
In  a  speech  at  New  Albany,  Indiana,  July  19,  1866,  Gov- 
ernor  Morton  recorded  his  opposition  to  negro  suffrage. 


V 


V 


34©       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

This  speech  was  delivered  at  Walter  Q.  Gresham's  request,  in 
response  to  the  speeches  made  a  short  time  before  at  New 
Albany  by  Senator  Hendricks  and  Joseph  E.  MacDonald, 
arguing  that  the  Union  party  was  for  negro  suffrage  and 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment  would  confer  it.  Enough  has 
gone  before  to  make  it  clear  that  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment did  not  confer  negro  suffrage.  That  came  through  the 
Fifteenth. 

James  G.  Blaine  was  right  when  he  said  that  it  was  the 
soldier  voter  who  ratified  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  but 
he  was  in  error  when  he  said  the  election  of  1866  meant 
negro  suffrage,  if  he  meant  that  the  soldiers  favored  un- 
restricted negro  suffrage.  Many  who  could  not  break  to 
the  Southern  leaders  and  the  "Dough-faces"  thought  it 
was  a  breach  of  faith  to  impose  negro  suffrage  on  them. 
Governor  Morton's  action  as  to  incorporating  negro  suf- 
frage into  the  Reconstruction  Acts,  and  its  subsequent 
ratification  by  the  Republican  party,  all  but  took  Walter 
Q.  Gresham  out  of  that  party. 


CHAPTER  XX 

CANDIDATE   FOR  CONGRESS  AND   DECLINES 
SENATORSHIP 


GRESHAM  RESUMES  PRACTICE  OF  LAW  —  AGAIN  DEFEATED 
AS  CANDIDATE  FOR  CONGRESS  —  ADVOCATES  RATIFICATION 
OF  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT  —  OPPOSES  THE  FIFTEENTH 
AMENDMENT  —  REFUSES  TO  BE  CANDIDATE  FOR  UNITED 
STATES  SENATOR — DECLINES  GRANT'S  OFFER  TO  BE  COL- 
LECTOR   OF    PORT     OF     NEW     ORLEANS. 

TVTOVEMBER  i,  1865,  when  able  to  walk  on  crutches, 
■*•  ^  General  Gresham  opened  a  law  office  in  New  Albany, 
Indiana,  and  clients  nocked  in.  After  a  time  a  partner- 
ship was  formed  with  John  Butler  of  Salem,  the  firm  being 
Butler  &  Gresham.  Again  the  junior  member  was  on  the 
circuit.  He  liked  the  trial  work.  Often  the  lawyers  were 
not  employed  until  the  term  of  court  began.  Then  the 
defendants  were  met  with -their  summons,  the  case  set  for 
trial  and  disposed  of  at  the  term.  Presently  Mr.  Butler's 
son,  Noble  C.  Butler,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  became 
a  member  of  the  firm.  Then  there  was  a  dissolution  of 
the  partnership  by  mutual  consent,  and  it  was  Gresham 
alone  in  the  practice.  A  housekeeper  knows  whether 
business  is  good  or  not.  We  were  in  easier  circumstances 
at  this  time  than  at  any  time  afterwards.  Most  of  Mr. 
Gresham's  practice  was  trial  work. 

In  the  Orange  Circuit  Court  he  secured  the  acquittal  of 
some  soldiers  charged  with  murder.  Daniel  W.  Voorhees 
was  special  counsel  for  the  State,  and  Judge  George  A. 
Bicknell,  on  the  bench,  did  all  he  could  within  his  sphere 
to  convict,  but  the  verdict  was  for  the  defendant.  Before 
the  trial  began  it  was  known  that  Judge  Bicknell  was  "for 
the  State,"  as  the  saying  is.     His  charge  to  the  jury  was 

341 


342        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

anticipated  and  countered.  My  husband  knew  how  to  try 
a  case  before  a  jury.  He  knew  the  rights  of  an  advocate 
and  he  respected  them  after  he  was  on  the  bench.  In  1864, 
while  a  number  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Indiana 
were  home  on  a  veteran  furlough,  one  of  their  number, 
Thomas  Parish,  was  killed  by  John  McCoit  at  Orleans. 
Parish  was  then  on  his  way  to  join  his  regiment.  McCoit 
was  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle  and  was 
a  leading  Rebel  sympathizer.  When  news  of  the  murder 
reached  other  members  of  the  regiment  at  Mitchell,  where 
they  were  waiting  to  take  the  train  for  St.  Louis  to  go  to 
the  front,  they  seized  a  hand  car  and  proceeded  to  Orleans , 
only  five  miles  north,  and  in  the  fight  that  followed  in  a 
hardware  store  where  McCoit  and  others  had  barricaded 
themselves,  McCoit  was  killed.  The  soldiers  then  went 
South  and  joined  their  regiment.  On  their  return  in  1865 
they  were  arrested  and  put  to  trial.  After  showing  that 
McCoit  had  belonged  to  the  "  Knights,"  my  husband 
closed  his  speech  for  the  defense  by  saying,  that  it  was 
war,  the  only  difference  being  that  McCoit  was  in  the  army 
operating  in  the  rear  instead  of  the  front.  John  F.  Moore 
and  Columbus  Brown  were  acquitted  in  Orange  County 
and  Benjamin  Wright  in  Lawrence  County.  As  the  saying 
is,  they  "venued"  Wright's  case  to  Lawrence  County  and 
continued  it  from  time  to  time  until  September  12,  1868, 
when  he  was  acquitted. 

In  1867  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  still  wanting 
in  the  requisite  number  of  States  to  ratify  it.  The  October 
elections  that  year  in  a  number  of  States  were  adverse 
to  the  Republican  or  Union  party.  My  husband  no  more 
believed  in  Thaddeus  Stevens's  financial  policy  (as  will  ap- 
pear) than  in  his  reconstruction  policy. 

On  October  15,  1867,  Mr.  Gresham  wrote  to  his  former 
partner  : 

The  result  of  the  election  in  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  especially 
in  the  former,  is  most  disastrous,     Of  course  the  negro  question 


CANDIDATE    FOR    CONGRESS  343 

had  something  to  do  with  bringing  about  the  result.  Without 
the  greenback  question  Ohio  would  have  gone  for  us  by  at  least 
30,000  majority.  How  do  you  suppose  Andy  Johnson  feels  ?  You 
and  others  at  Cory  don  had  better  stop  talking  about  impeachment. 
The  truth  is,  I  have  never  allowed  myself  to  speak  of  the  President 
disrespectfully,  and  I  can  now  remember  with  satisfaction  how  I 
stood  up  for  him  in  our  last  State  Convention. 

My  husband  was  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  Con- 
vention that  assembled  in  Chicago  in  1868.  Of  course  he 
favored  General  Grant's  nomination.  Again  he  was  a  can- 
didate, but  against  his  will,  for  Congress.  Governor  Baker 
came  to  the  convention  which  met  at  Orleans,  Indiana, 
and  insisted  on  Gresham  being  nominated.  Again  Kerr 
was  the  Democratic  candidate.  The  Indiana  legislature  of 
1867,  in  order  to  make  other  districts  certainly  Republican, 
had  thrown  additional  Democratic  counties  into  the  Sec- 
ond Congressional  District.  This  made  the  district  over- 
whelmingly Democratic.  In  the  spring  of  that  year,  Henry 
Watterson  had  associated  himself  with  the  management  of 
the  Louisville  Journal,  and  he  and  George  D.  Prentice  jointly 
trained  their  guns  on  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  claiming 
it  meant  negro  suffrage.  The  Courier  was  still  under  the 
editorship  of  Simon  Boliver  Buckner,  who  was  saying  that 
the  States  had  never  been  out.  It  was  more  bitter  but  was 
less  ably  edited  than  the  Journal.  July  21,  1868,  Congress 
declared  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  adopted,  reciting  that 
it  had  been  ratified  by  thirty  out  of  thirty-six  States.  Then 
the  editors  and  Democratic  campaign  speakers  declared 
that  as  soon  as  Congress  met  in  December  it  would  pass  a 
law  enfranchising  the  negroes  en  masse.  Again  there  were 
joint  debates. 

Mr.  Watterson  published  all  the  speeches  of  the  Repub- 
licans of  that  year  except  my  husband's.  He  afterwards 
said  that  Gresham 's  speech  on  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment and  what  led  up  to  it  was  the  strongest  made  in 
its  support,  and  as  he,  Watterson,  was  from  personal  and 


344        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

political  motives  especially  interested  in  the  election  of 
Mr.  Kerr,  he  did  not  publish  it.  Later,  Mr.  Watterson 
adopted  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  He  was  the  first 
Southern  leader  to  do  so  in  good  faith. 

Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  one  of  the  best  campaigners 
ever  at  the  hustings,  was  the  candidate  against  Governor 
Baker,  who  wanted  to  succeed  himself.  To  Shelbyville, 
Mr.  Hendricks'  home  town,  to  other  points  in  Shelby 
County,  and  to  other  counties  in  Hendricks'  old  congres- 
sional district,  my  husband  was  sent  to  make  speeches  to 
get  back  into  line  the  Shelby  County  soldiers  who  had 
been  led  off  by  Hendricks'  assertion  that  if  the  Republicans 
succeeded  they  would  at  once  give  the  negroes  the  ballot. 
Again,  it  is  said  the  soldier  orator  satisfied  the  soldier  voters 
that  Hendricks'  claim  was  untrue,  and  Governor  Baker 
was  elected  and  the  Republicans  carried  the  legislature.1 

Again  the  Kentuckians  had  votes  to  spare  to  send  across 
the  river.  Frank  P.  Blair  was  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  Vice-President.  He  was  deservedly  popular  with  the 
soldiers,  from  General  Sherman  down.  General  Blair  was 
making  speeches  in  Indiana  everywhere,  except  in  my 
husband's  district.  He  wrote  to  General  Gresham:  "I 
hope  you  will  be  elected."  The  Republican  National  Com- 
mittee became  alarmed  about  Indiana  when  they  could  not 
induce  General  Sherman  to  say  even  a  word  for  General 
Grant  as  against  Blair.  General  Sherman's  silence  was  the 
subject  of  a  special  meeting  of  the  Republican  National 
Committee  in  New  York.  J.  Russell  Jones,  the  member  of 
the  National  Committee  from  Illinois,  and  General  Grant's 
special  friend,  was  sent  to  Indiana  "to  straighten  things 
out."  Mr.  Jones  was  later  one  of  our  near  neighbors  and 
friends  in  Chicago.  Wealthy,  he  belonged  to  the  school  of 
practical  politics.     I  can  quote  his  words: 

It  was  a  delicate  mission.     After  two  or  three  days  at  the 

1  Hendricks  lost  only  by  1,000  votes  while  Grant  defeated  Seymour  in  Indiana  by 
.10,000.  In  1872  Hendricks  defeated  General  Brown  for  Governor  by  i.ooo  while  General 
Grant  carried  the  State  by  20,000. 


CANDIDATE    FOR    CONGRESS  345 

Bates  House  in  Indianapolis  with  '  Ham '  Conner,  the  Chairman  of 
the  Republican  State  Central  Committee  of  Indiana,  I  broached 
the  subject  of  politics.  After  a  general  discussion,  I  asked  him 
how  things  were  in  Indiana.  "We  are  all  right,"  he  said,  "were 
it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  Democrats  will  bring  so  many  Ken- 
tuckians  across  the  river  in  the  southern  counties  to  vote  that 
they  may  outvote  us."  I  then  looked  at  him  hard  and  said, 
"Can't  you  get  as  many  across  the  river  as  they  can?"  Conner 
replied,  "Oh,  yes,  but  that  costs  money."  "I  am  here  to  pay 
the  bills,"  I  rejoined.  We  found  that  while  the  Kentuckian 
would  cross  the  river  to  vote  against  the  radical  Republican 
ticket,  he  would  not  do  so  to  vote  it,  so  we  established  head- 
quarters at  Vincennes  and  LaPorte  and  operated  most  suc- 
cessfully across  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  State  lines,  leaving 
the  Democrats  the  southern  counties,  but  we  outvoted  them. 
At  Vincennes  the  bed  bugs  almost  ate  me  up.  On  the  way  to 
the  inauguration  when  we  reached  Altoona,  General  Grant  said 
to  me,  "Jones,  you  have  never  indicated  to  me  the  place  you 
want,  so  I  guess  I  will  appoint  you  Postmaster  at  Vincennes 
and  let  you  fight  it  out  with  the  bedbugs."1 

Again  my  husband  had  the  aid  of  Colonel  Benjamin  H. 
Bristow  of  Louisville  in  his  campaigning.  But  again  Mr. 
Kerr  had  a  good  majority. 

Following  the  election  the  Greenfield  Republicans  came 
out  for  Gresham  for  United  States  Senator.  ' ' Ham' '  Conner, 
the  chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee, 
said  he  could  be  elected  and  offered  him  his  support.  A 
number  of  the  members  of  the  legislature  proffered  theirs. 
Governor-elect  Baker  offered  his  aid  and  even  Senator 
Morton  sent  word  that  he  would  interpose  no  opposition 
to  Gresham's  candidacy  for  the  Senate.  In  the  face  of  the 
declarations  on  the  stump  and  the  party  platform  my  hus- 
band considered  it  a  breach  of  faith  to  engraft  unlimited 
negro  suffrage  into  the  Constitution,  and  so  it  was  that  the 
declaration  of  the  leading  man  in  Washington,  that  the  elec- 
tion of  General  Grant  meant  negro  suffrage,  led  Mr.  Gres- 
ham without  hesitation  to  decline  to  be  a  candidate  for  the 

1  Mr.  Jones  was  appointed  Minister  to  Belgium. 


346        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 


United  States  Senate  before  the  legislature  elected  in  1868 
had  assembled,  which  it  did  early  in  January,  1869. 

On  February  24,  1869,  the  men  in  Washington  started 
the  fifteenth  of  the  suffrage  amendments  through  Congress. 

February  1,  1869,  General  Grant,  as  President-elect, 
wrote  General  Gresham,  stating  that  he  wanted  Gresham 
to  go  to  New  Orleans  as  soon  as  the  new  administration 
came  in,  take  the  collect orship  of  the  port  with  large  per- 
quisites, and  be  the  President's  adviser  in  that  section. 
General  Grant's  letter  was  supplemented  by  one  from  John 
A.  Rawlins,  Secretary  of  War  to  be,  urging  his  old  com- 
rade to  accept  Grant's  offer  and  promising  him  almost  un- 
limited discretion.  When  Walter  Q.  Gresham  respectfully 
declined,  John  A.  Rawlins'  answer  for  Grant,  under  date 
of  February  20,  1869,  stated  that  Grant  said  he  admired  a 
man  who  could  say  "no"  when  an  office  was  tendered  him, 
more  than  he  did  one  who  could  not  accept  "no"  when  he 
was  asked  for  an  office. 

To  his  former  partner  my  husband  wrote: 

Since  I  saw  you  I  have  received  a  very  kind  and  flattering  let- 
ter from  General  Grant,  not  written  by  Rawlins,  but  by  himself. 
I  have  declined  his  offers  and  said  to  him  that  I  expect  nothing  from 
his  administration;  that  I  am  disgusted  with  politics  and  expect 
to  keep  clear  of  all  such  things  in  the  future.  Have  just  received 
a  dispatch  from  Tom  McCarty  saying  that  he  has  information 
from  Washington  that  General  Grant  is  going  to  send  my  name 
to  the  Senate  for  a  good  office.  I  presume  Tom's  information 
comes  from  Governor  Morton,  but  I  guess  my  name  will  not  be 
sent  in  as  General  Grant  has  certainly  received  my  last  letter 
before  this. 

My  mind  is  now  made  up;  I  will  accept  no  offer,  I  care  not 
what  it  is.  I  know  that  you  will  laugh  when  I  say  that  I  have 
no  political  aspirations,  and  that  I  would  not  to-day  go  to  the 
United  States  Senate  if  I  could.  I  am  disgusted  with  the  whole 
thing,  I  think  the  Republican  party  is  an  infernally  corrupt  con- 
cern, and  I  don't  care  how  soon  it  is  broken  up  if  the  Democracy 
don't  survive  it. 


CANDIDATE    FOR    CONGRESS  347 

Because  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was  then  opposed  to  negro    [I      ^y 
suffrage,  it  must  not  be  understood  that  he  had  abated  any    \\ 
of  his  desire  and  purpose  to  elevate  the  black  race.     ' '  Noth-   / ' 
ing  stamped  in  the  Divine  likeness  and  image  was  brought 
into  the  world  to  be  trodden  on  and  degraded."     He  had 
been  opposed  to  putting  the  black  men  into  the  army  be- 
cause of  the  bitterness  it  might  and  did  generate.     The 
attempt  to  rule  the  white  through  the  black  would  be  a 
failure  and  an  injustice  to  both  races.     But  to  deny  them 
the  equal  protection  of  the  law,  to  keep  them  in  ignorance 
and  degradation,  made  them  a  menace  to  society. 

The  world  was  bright  to  me  when  I  first  saw  Washing- 
ton. It  was  just  after  General  Grant's  first  inauguration. 
I  saw  it  with  young  eyes.  It  was  an  enchanting  place. 
Even  the  old  National  Hotel  was  a  dream  to  me.  Think 
of  the  stuffy,  ill-kept  rooms;  the  huge  spittoons,  not  any  too 
clean,  around  them  and  on  every  floor  to  be  stumbled  over; 
the  darky  servants  not  better  kept  than  the  rooms.  And 
the  table  service  was  not  better  than  we  can  find  in  any 
country  town  now.  Ah,  but  there  were  the  terrapin,  shad, 
and  the  corn  bread  such  as  we  cannot  get  now! 

In  the  lobby  and  halls  the  great  crowds  made  up  of  the 
senators,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  country  congress- 
men, and  other  public  men  of  the  day,  were  fascinating. 
Here  men  I  had  read  about  were  met  face  to  face.  I 
dropped  into  the  life,  heard  a  lot  of  politics,  and  some 
gossip — for  even  statesmen  and  judges  will  gossip. 

I  remember  how  I  sat  in  wonder  as  Judge  Otto  told  me 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  fond  of  gossip,  too,  for  he  used  to  slip  out 
of  the  White  House  at  ten  o'clock  and  stay  chatting  until 
midnight.  The  world  has  always  given  women  the  credit 
of  tattling,  but  I  have  heard  men  tell  in  an  idle  way  things 
that  a  woman  would  only  dare  whisper. 

My  husband  was  very  popular  in  Washington  at  this 
time.  He  was  pointed  out  as  the  man  who  would  not  take 
an  office.     General  Rawlins,  Secretary  of  War,  spread  the 


348        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

report.  Ours  was  a  pleasure  trip.  We  made  several  later 
trips,  mainly  for  the  purpose  of  my  husband  using  his 
influence  for  friends  who  had  asked  him  to  intercede  for 
them  with  General  Grant.  Mr.  Gresham  dreaded  the  first 
trip.  Notwithstanding  General  Grant's  kind  message  to 
Him  through  Rawlins,  he  thought  that  the  President  would 
be  displeased  with  him  because  he  declined  to  go  to  Louis- 
iana for  him,  but  he  was  mistaken.  On  his  first  visit  to  the 
White  House,  General  Grant  said,  "You  are  a  lawyer  and 
I  want  you  to  accept  the  office  of  district  attorney  for 
Indiana."  "No,  General,"  he  said,  "I  cannot  accept  it. 
I  promised  General  Thomas  Brown  to  speak  to  you  for  him 
for  the  place,  and  if  you  desire  to  place  me  still  further 
under  obligations  to  you,  you  will  appoint  him."  General 
Brown  was  appointed.  Many  men  whose  preferment  he 
secured  repaid  him  with  ingratitude.  One  of  the  men  he 
suggested  to  General  Grant  was  Benjamin  H.  Bristow. 
My  husband's  friendship  for  Bristow,  after  Bristow  left  the 
cabinet,  almost  cost  him  the  good-will  of  General  Grant. 
Bristow  was  one  of  Mr.  Gresham's  friends  until  death. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
UNITED   STATES   DISTRICT  JUDGE 


APPOINTED  UNITED  STATES  DISTRICT  JUDGE  FOR  INDIANA 
—  A  BELIEVER  IN  ARBITRATION  OF  LEGAL  DISPUTES  —  EQUITY 
PROCEDURE — PATENT  CASES — THE  NATIONAL  BANKRUPTCY 
ACT  OF  1867 — UPHOLDS  TRIAL  BY  JURY — JUDGE  GRESHAM'S 
METHODS    WITH    THE   JURY. 

SEPTEMBER  9,  1869,  General  Grant,  without  Walter 
Q.  Gresham's  knowledge,  sent  his  name  to  the  Senate 
as  United  States  District  Judge  for  the  District  of  Indiana. 
There  were  many  applications  for  the  place.  Senator 
Morton  desired  his  partner  appointed,  Judge  Kilby  of  Rich- 
mond, Indiana,  but  he  made  no  opposition  in  the  Senate 
when  Mr.  Gresham's  appointment  came  up  for  confirmation. 
There  was  hesitancy  about  accepting.  My  father,  who  had 
forgotten  the  animosities  of  the  war,  advised  against  it. 
But  the  advice  of  lawyers  and  want  of  harmony  with  the 
policy  and  leaders  of  the  Republican  party,  finally  decided 
General  Gresham's  course.  He  was  on  the  bench  long 
before  he  was  confirmed  in  December. 

For  several  years  prior  to  that  time,  John  D.  Howland 
had  been  Clerk  of  the  District  and  Circuit  Courts  and 
Master  in  Chancery.  He  was  an  able  and  accomplished 
lawyer  of  wide  experience  at  the  bar.  In  familiarizing  the 
new  judge  with  his  duties,  John  D.  Howland  was  a  great 
aid  to  Mr.  Gresham.  Mr.  Howland  died  in  1877,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  W.  P.  Fishback.  Gifted  with  the  pen, 
Mr.  Howland  organized  the  Indianapolis  Literary  Club. 
As  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  the  Indianapolis  Bar 
Association  he  drafted,  without  an  interlineation  or  an 
erasure,  a  memorial  on   the  life   and  services  of   Senator 

349 
23 


35©       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Morton  that  received  the  unanimous  concurrence  of  his 
associates  and  went  into  the  records  of  the  court.  But  for 
his  age  John  D.  Howland  would  probably  have  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  district  judgeship  instead  of  Walter  Q. 
Gresham.  It  was  supposed  he  was  to  be  appointed  instead 
of  David  McDonald  in  1864,  but  at  the  last  minute,  so 
Thomas  A.  Hendricks  said,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  yielded  to 
the  politicians  and  to  his  own  impulses. 

We  continued  to  live  at  New  Albany  and  went  back  and 
forth  between  there  and  Indianapolis.  Thomas  A.  Hend- 
ricks, then  out  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  Mrs. 
Hendricks  were  living  at  the  Bates  House  in  the  Fall  of 
1869,  and  when  we  went  there  to  spend  the  winter  cordial 
relations  were  established  with  them  that  were  never  after- 
wards interrupted.  I  met  most  of  the  lawyers  and  many  of 
the  people  of  Indianapolis.  Among  my  first  callers  were 
Ezekiel  MacDonald  and  his  wife.  Ezekiel  MacDonald  was 
the  son  and  partner  of  Joseph  E.  MacDonald.  At  this  visit, 
Mr.  MacDonald  said,  "I  was  almost  afraid  to  meet  your 
husband  when  he  first  went  on  the  bench.  Both  times 
when  he  was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  I  canvassed  his 
district  against  him,  and  I  denounced  him  more  bitterly 
than  I  ever  supposed  I  could  talk  about  any  man.  Your 
husband  knew  what  I  had  said  about  him,  for  my  speeches 
were  published.  We  had  never  met.  But  when  I  called 
at  his  chambers,  his  greeting  was  cordiality  itself." 

Soon  a  United  States  Court  was  established  at  New 
Albany.  In  an  important  case  in  which  his  former  opponent 
for  Congress,  Michael  C.  Kerr,  was  counsel  on  one  side, 
and  Alexander  Dowling,  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  in  south- 
ern Indiana  and  active  as  a  Republican,  was  counsel  on  the 
other,  Mr.  Dowling  and  the  Republican  partisans  of  the 
time  thought  it  strange  that  the  justice  of  Mr.  Kerr's  client 
should  win  over  Mr.  Dowling's  technicalities. 

On  his  way  to  Washington  to  the  meeting  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  Judge  David  Davis  stopped  at  Indianapolis 


UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  351 

to  hold  court  and  help  the  young  judge  take  up  the  lines 
of  his  work.  Judge  Davis  was  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  ap- 
pointments on  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
He  was  the  circuit  justice  then  assigned  to  the  Seventh 
Circuit,  composed  then  as  now  of  the  States  of  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  Wisconsin.  After  we  went  to  live  at  Indian- 
apolis, and  in  Chicago,  Judge  Davis  was  frequently  our 
guest.  He  was  an  immense  man  in  size.  We  had  a  special 
chair  made  for  him.  He  was  a  great  judge,  and  few 
of  his  or  any  other  time  excelled  him  in  writing  short, 
luminous  opinions.  He  had  not  the  gift  of  expressing  him- 
self extemporaneously,  as  he  often  had  to  do  on  the  circuit, 
and  I  have  heard  him  swear  about  the  way  a  few  of  the 
newspaper  men  reported  some  of  his  oral  opinions.  In- 
stead of  editing,  a  reporter  would  sometimes  quote  him 
verbatim.  And  then  the  Judge  would  say,  ''That  damn 
fellow  misquoted  me."  Judge  Davis  was  a  very  rich  man. 
I  have  often  heard  him  tell  how  he  made  money  in  buy- 
ing land  when  he  was  a  young  man  going  through  Illinois 
and  Iowa.  "We  would  always  buy  if  we  heard  there  was 
a  piano  in  the  neighborhood." 

And  there  was  Judge  Thomas  Drummond,  the  circuit 
judge.  He  was  always  our  guest  when  he  came  to  Indian- 
apolis. Educated,  cultured,  and  accomplished  far  beyond 
Judge  Davis,  he  had  not  the  facility  and  executive  ability, 
it  was  said,  for  dispatching  business  that  Judge  Davis 
possessed.  Judge  Drummond  was  a  native  of  Maine.  He 
had  graduated  from  Bowdoin.  Coming  early  to  Illinois, 
he  had  settled  at  Galena,  served  in  the  legislature  with  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  was  appointed  United  States  District  Judge 
for  the  District  of  Illinois  by  President  Taylor.  When  the 
office  of  circuit  judge  was  created  in  1868,  Thomas  Drum- 
mond was  appointed  to  that  office  for  the  Seventh  Circuit. 
In  the  meantime  Illinois  had  been  divided  and  Samuel 
H.  Treat  was  appointed  District  Judge  for  the  South- 
ern District  of  Illinois,  while  Henry  H.  Blodgett  succeeded 


352        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Judge  Drummond  as  the  district  judge  for  the  Northern 
District  of  Illinois. 

The  office  of  circuit  judge  was  created  to  help  relieve 
the  congestion  of  business  that  was  then  accumulating  in 
the  Circuit  Court.  Up  to  that  time  the  district  judges 
with  the  aid  of  the  circuit  justices  had  been  able  to  keep 
the  dockets  of  both  the  District  and  Circuit  Courts  clean. 
The  circuit  judge  was  also  an  intermediate  Appellate  Court 
between  the  district  judges  and  the  Supreme  Court. 

On  May  i,  1870,  while  fishing  on  the  abutment  of 
Mauk's  Mill  on  Indian  Creek,  two  miles  below  Corydon, 
my  husband  slipped  and  fell  on  his  left  hip.  The  bone  was 
broken  just  below  the  greater  trochanter.  At  first,  it  was 
feared  the  fracture  was  in  the  neck  or  in  the  socket.  If  so, 
a  union  would  probably  have  been  impossible.  Injured  as 
the  limb  had  been  during  the  war,  even  as  the  fracture  was 
finally  diagnosed  it  was  feared  it  would  not  unite.  But  after 
twelve  weeks  in  bed  the  invalid  was  on  crutches.  His 
anxiety  about  his  May  term  of  court  at  Indianapolis, — 
he  contemplated  resigning  in  order  that  some  one  might  be 
appointed  so  that  the  public  business  might  not  suffer  — 
was  soon  relieved  by  Judge  Davis,  who  wrote  him,  May  24: 

Immediately  upon  learning  from  Mr.  Howland  of  the  terrible 
accident  that  had  befallen  you,  I  replied  to  him  that  Judge 
Drummond  and  I  would  hold  your  court  and  remain  as  long  as 
there  was  any  business  to  do.  I  relieved  Judge  Drummond  last 
week  and  will  probably  be  able  to  close  the  term  by  the  last  of 
next  week.  Everything  is  moving  along  pleasantly,  and  although 
your  absence  is  regretted  and  great  sympathy  felt  for  your  mis- 
fortune, the  public  business  will  in  no  wise  suffer. 

I  congratulate  you  upon  your  success  since  your  advent  to 
the  bench.  You  have  already  won  golden  opinions  from  the  bar, 
and  I  feel  assured  that  your  reputation  as  an  upright  and  able 
judge  and  courteous  gentleman,  already  secured  to  you  by  the 
universal  testimony  of  those  I  meet,  will  constantly  increase. 

One  of  the  stories  of  that  term  of  court  will  illustrate 


UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  353 

Judge  Davis's  methods  and  how  he  cleared  the  calendar. 
General  Benjamin  Harrison,  as  attorney  for  the  plaintiff, 
was  insisting  on  going  to  trial  in  a  case  in  which  the  attorney 
for  the  defendant  was  absent.  Judge  Davis  suggested  the 
case  be  continued.  General  Harrison  was  insistent.  Final- 
ly Judge  Davis  said,  "General,  you  are  entitled,  under  the 
rules,  to  a  trial  and  you  can  have  it.  I  had  a  case  of  this 
kind  the  last  time  I  was  in  the  Circuit  Court  at  Springfield. 
The  attorney  for  the  defendant  was  absent  and  I  had  to 
look  after  the  defendant's  interest.  And,  would  you  be- 
lieve it,  General,  our  side  won."  "Continue  the  case,"  said 
Harrison. 

Alexander  Hamilton's  saying  that  "Justice  is  the  end 
of  government,"  Walter  Q.  Gresham  always  kept  in  mind. 
The  place  to  vindicate  the  judicial  system,  he  said,  was  in 
the  court  room. 

Formula  and  English  equity  procedure,  as  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  had  pointed  out  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of 
our  Constitution,  were  all  the  fathers  had  adopted  of  the 
British  system  of  equity  —  not  equity  itself.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is,  "The 
judicial  power  shall  extend  to  all  cases  in  law  and  equity 
arising  under  this  Constitution."  But,  as  there  is  no  defini- 
tion of  equity  in  the  Constitution,  when  on  the  chancery 
side  of  the  court  Walter  Q.  Gresham  believed  in  exercising 
and  did  exercise,  in  the  particular  case,  that  original  flexi- 
bility of  the  rules  of  equity  that  gave  rise  to  their  existence 
and  justified  their  name.  This  policy  led  to  controversies, 
not  only  with  parties  lawyers  but  with  some  of  his  brethren 
on  the  bench. 

The  divisions  and  balances  on  the  American  system, 
not  designed  to  produce  immobility,  Walter  Q".  Gresham 
understood  better  than  most  of  his  critics,  because  he  un- 
derstood better  than  they  what  had  gone  before. 

A  life  tenure  in  the  judges  during  good  behavior,  with 
appeals  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  be  decided  primarily  by 


V 


354        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

the  law  lords;  the  belief  that  the  Commons  would  inter- 
vene, in  the  event  the  lay  lords  should  fail  to  take  a  hand 
in  seeing  that  substantial  justice  was  done;  and  the  re- 
tention of  the  jury — these  provisions  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
believed  had  made  the  modern  English  system  of  judicature 
(that  is,  since  1688)  the  best  in  the  world.1  And  from 
the  system  of  the  mother  country,  the  fathers,  in  organiz- 
ing our  own  judicial  system,  did  not  so  far  depart  as  is  now 
very  unwisely  and  not  correctly  asserted  (it  was  very 
unwisely  asserted  by  many  that  they  did)  as  to  make  the 
Federal  judges  absolute.2  Attempts  at  absolutism  on 
the  part  of  the  American  judiciary,  Judge  Gresham  be- 
lieved would  and  should  meet  the  same  resistance  and 
revolution  that  had  reformed  the  English  system. 

Frequently  have  I  heard  it  said  that,  "the  tendency 
is  for  school  teachers,  preachers,  and  judges,  especially 
judges  with  a  life  term,  to  become  pedants.  Because  they 
have  the  only,  or  the  last  say,  the  tendency  is  to  absolut- 
ism." Aware  of  this  tendency  Walter  Q.  Gresham  was 
always  on  his  guard  against  it. 

Many  a  time  in  open  court  Judge  Gresham  advised 
opposing  parties,  instead  of  going  to  trial,  to  settle  or  arbi- 
trate their  differences.  There  were  criticisms;  but  there 
were  also  precedents,  —  some  of  the  best  are  not  in  the 
books. 

One  day  at  Springfield,  a  case  came  on  for  hearing  before 

iln  1884  in  Hartado  vs.  California,  no  U.  S.  516,  page  531,  Justice  Matthews  said:  "The 
omnipotence  of  Parliament  over  the  Common  Law  was  or  is  absolute,  even  against  common 
right  and  reason.  The  actual  and  practical  security  for  English  liberty  against  legislative 
tyranny  was  the  power  of  a  free  public  opinion  represented  by  the  commons." 

2  In  the  first  milestone  of  the  Constitution,  Chisholm  vs.  Georgia,  2  Dallas  419,  on  page  458, 
Justice  Wilson  in  1793  said:  "The  principle  is  that  all  human  law  must  be  prescribed  by  a 
superior.  This  principle  I  mean  now  to  examine.  Suffice  it,  at  present,  to  say  that  another 
principle  different  in  its  nature  and  operations,  forms,  in  my  judgment,  the  basis  of  sound  and 
genuine  jurisprudence;  laws  derived  from  the  purer  source  of  equity  and  justice  must  be  founded 
on  the  consent  of  those  whose  obedience  they  require.  The  sovereign  when  traced  to  a  source  must 
be  found  in  the  man."  Speaking  before  the  Illinois  State  Bar  Association,  May  28,  1914. 
on  the  subject,  "The  Administration  of  Justice,"  William  R.  Riddle,  a  member  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Ontario  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  touching  on  the  absolutism  of  the 
American  judges  and  its  corollary  the  Judicial  Recall,  said:  "The  Court  is  not  (at  least  in 
my  country)  the  master  of  the  people." 


UNITED     STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  355 

Justice  David  Davis  on  the  equity  side.  A  German  had 
married  back  in  Germany,  and  after  the  birth  of  three 
children  had  deserted  his  family  and  come  to  the  United 
States.  In  Illinois  he  had  married  again,  and  after  the 
birth  of  the  third  child  of  this  union  he  died.  Mean- 
time he  had  acquired  a  fortune.  The  contest  was  between 
the  two  widows  and  the  two  sets  of  children.  The  second 
set  claimed  that  proof  that  the  decedent  was  the  father 
of  the  first  set  was  imperfect.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
hearing,  as  the  court  convened  for  the  afternoon  session, 
Judge  Davis  said,  "  Gentlemen,  this  is  the  most  perplexing 
case  this  court  has  ever  been  called  to  pass  on.  I  am 
utterly  unable  to  give  you  any  information  as  to  what 
the  judgment  of  the  court  will  be.  Should  the  court  hold 
the  first  marriage  valid,  it  will  bastardize  the  issue  of  the 
second  marriage,  and  they  will  get  no  part  of  this  large 
estate.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  court  holds  the  first 
marriage  void,  it  will  bastardize  the  first  set  of  children 
and  they  will  get  nothing  from  this  large  estate.  There  is 
enough  for  all.  Gentlemen,  I  can  tell  you  this  much:  it 
will  take  this  court  a  long  time  to  reach  a  conclusion  in 
this  case.  And  now,  while  I  hear  Brother  Connelly's  ap- 
plication for  a  temporary  restraining  order,  there  is  a 
vacant  room  to  which  you  may  retire  if  you  desire  to  con- 
sult about  the  frailty  of  human  judgment  and  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  law."  They  retired  as  suggested,  consulted 
together,  speedily  came  to  a  settlement,  which  was  an 
equal  division  of  the  property,  and  then  in  open  court 
dismissed  the  suit. 

While  an  infringement  of  a  patent  is  nothing  but  a  tres- 
pass and  should  properly  be  considered  on  the  law  side  of 
a  court,  the  practice  has  been  for  the  equity  or  chancery 
court  to  take  cognizance  of  all  questions  relating  to  the 
validity  and  infringement  of  patents. 

Soon  called  to  sit  with  Judge  Davis  in  a  patent  case, 
with  eminent  counsel  on  both  sides,  Judge  Gresham  was 


356        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

astounded  and  humiliated  at  Judge  Davis's  frank  remark, 
"We  do  not  know  anything  about  patents."  True  as  to 
himself,  for  his  practice  had  not  run  in  that  line,  he  thought 
it  was  not  becoming  a  man  of  Judge  Davis's  ability  and  ex- 
perience on  the  bench.  But  like  many  another  man  of  no 
experience  in  patent  litigation  who  went  on  the  Supreme 
bench  when  in  the  meridian  or  past  middle  age,  with  no 
fondness  nor  aptitude  for  mechanics,  Judge  Davis  never 
mastered  that  branch  of  the  profession.  It  was  the  only 
department  of  law  in  which  he  was  lame.  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  determined  that  should  not  be  true  of  him,  so  he 
applied  himself  industriously  to  that  particular  branch,  and 
he  mastered  it,  at  least  to  the  extent  that  he  felt  competent 
to  decide  every  question  that  came  to  him.  He  was  aided 
in  thus  qualifying  himself,  by  Judge  Drummond,  a  most 
excellent  patent  judge,  who  always  insisted  that  Judge 
Gresham  sit  with  him  in  the  patent  cases  heard  at  Indian- 
apolis. Ignorance  of  mechanics  and  prejudice  against 
monopolies  have  led  many  men  on  the  bench  to  be  against 
all  patents.  It  was  easy  to  say,  "There  is  no  novelty  in 
the  device."  Many  were  like  Judge  Davis,  but  few  were 
so  frank. 

The  old  patent  lawyer  sought  Judge  Gresham's  court. 
Many  a  time  was  our  library  cluttered  up  with  briefs, 
records,  and  models  of  machinery  in  patent  cases.  One 
night  at  Indianapolis,  when  Judge  Drummond  and  my 
husband  were  considering  a  suit  for  infringement  on  an  im- 
provement to  a  shuttle  on  a  sewing  machine,  we  brought 
down  my  sewing  machine  and  I  was  the  demonstrator.  It 
was  a  late  hour  when  we  concluded,  and  when  we  did  I 
knew  how  that  case  would  be  decided.  It  was  not  long 
until  I  had  a  new  sewing  machine. 

So  long  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and 
the  laws  to  enforce  it  granted  a  limited  monopoly  to  the 
inventor,  the  author,  and  the  artist,  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
considered  it  was  his  duty  as  a  judge,   in  good  faith  to 


UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  357 

recognize  and  protect  that  monopoly.  It  was  against  public 
policy  to  permit  an  employer  to  acquire  a  patent  which  an 
employee  had  secured  during  employment.  Therefore,  he 
held  an  assignment  by  an  employee  to  an  employer,  in  ad- 
vance of  the  issuance  of  the  patent  and  during  the  employ- 
ment, void. 

He  made  mistakes  in  patent  and  other  cases  and  ac- 
knowledged and  corrected  them.  In  Gottfried  vs.  Crescent 
Brewing  Company  (9  Federal  Reporter,  762,  and  13  Federal 
Reporter,  479),  after  holding,  in  a  written  opinion,  letters 
patent  No.  42580,  for  pitching  beer  barrels,  invalid  because 
the  process  had  been  anticipated  in  Germany  and  St.  Louis, 
on  a  rehearing,  with  models  and  further  testimony,  he  re- 
versed himself,  and  said:  ''The  complainant's  device  was 
the  first,  and  the  proof  shows  that  it  is  to-day  the  only 
means  by  which  brewers  are  enabled  to  pitch  barrels  and 
kegs  without  removing  the  heads." 

M.  Romero,  long  the  Mexican  minister  at  Washington, 
in  a  sketch  prepared  after  my  husband's  death,  but  which 
he  did  not  publish  because  of  reasons  of  state,  had  this  to 
say  about  the  judicial  side  of  Judge  Gresham : 

One  incident  showed  very  clearly  the  good  faith  which  con- 
trolled all  Mr.  Gresham 's  conduct.  I  had  asked  him,  under 
instructions  from  the  Mexican  government,  for  the  extradition 
of  a  Francisco  Bonavides,  who  had  organized  an  armed  force  in 
a  portion  of  Texas,  adjoining  the  Rio  Grande  River,  and  invaded 
Mexico,  attacked  a  small  detachment  of  regular  troops  that  were 
stationed  at  a  small  town  called  San  Ignacio,  near  the  boundary 
line  in  the  state  of  Tamaulipas,  burned  the  place,  including 
wounded  soldiers,  plundered  everybody  there,  and  as  soon  as  he 
heard  that  Mexican  troops  were  coming  against  him,  left  the  place 
and  returned  to  United  States  territory,  with  some  prisoners  to 
enjoy  their  booty,  calling  himself  revolutionist.  Mr.  Gresham 
had  sent  me  a  letter  dated  on  the  6th  day  of  April,  1893,  denying 
the  extradition,  on  the  ground  that  the  offense  was  of  a  political 
character,  and  in  this  case  he  followed  the  opinion  of  the  solicitor 
of  the  department,  and  acted  in  accordance  with  the  practice 


358        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

followed  in  previous  cases,  and  of  course  that  was  on  the  safe  side. 
I  remonstrated  against  that  decision,  and  told  Mr.  Gresham  that 
I  desired  him  to  give  me  a  hearing,  just  as  if  he  was  acting  as  a 
judge  in  the  case,  that  is,  to  hear  the  opinion  of  the  law  officer 
of  the  department  who  had  advised  that  decision,  and  then 
hear  my  reasons  against  it  before  that  gentleman,  so  that  he 
could  be  satisfied  of  the  correctness  of  such  facts  as  I  would  state 
them.  He  kindly  agreed  to  do  so,  and  on  one  afternoon  we  met 
and  had  an  oral  argument  on  both  sides,  which  lasted  over  two 
hours,  and  after  hearing  all  the  details  of  the  case,  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  I  was  right,  that  is,  that  the  crimes  of  which 
Bonavides  was  accused  were  not  of  a  political  character,  and,  that, 
therefore,  he  ought  to  be  extradited,  and  he  wrote  me  a  letter 
dated  on  May  13,  1893,  i*1  which  he  gave  the  reasons  for  changing 
his  previous  decision,  which  he  had  communicated  to  me.  In 
my  long  experience  in  Washington,  and  in  all  my  dealings  with 
the  officers  of  the  United  States  government,  I  have  never  found 
another  case  in  which  they  would  manfully  acknowledge  that 
their  decision  was  mistaken. 

That  jealousy  of  power  that  the  people  have  always 
manifested  against  their  Federal  agents  led  to  the  early 
repeal  of  the  first  two  National  bankruptcy  acts.  The 
people  preferred  the  insolvency  laws  of  their  respective 
States.  The  third  Federal  bankruptcy  act,  that  of  1867, 
conferred  broad  and  general  powers  on  the  bankruptcy 
courts.  And  the  amount  of  work  performed  under  it  by 
the  district  judges,  from  its  enactment  until  its  repeal  in 
1879,  was  enormous.  Every  contested  matter  had  to  be 
heard  by  the  district  judge  in  the  first  instance.  These 
judges  were  without  the  aid  of  registers,  referees,  or  assist- 
ants. There  were  but  few  adjudications  in  the  Supreme 
Court  under  the  first  two  bankruptcy  acts,  and  while  the 
Supreme  Court,  as  the  Act  of  1867  commanded,  had  made 
general  rules  for  its  enforcement,  the  onus  of  putting  it 
into  practical  operation  devolved  on  the  district  judges 
under  the  supervisory  power  of  the  circuit  judges.  The 
circuit  judge  was  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  first  instance, 


UNITED     STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  359 

and  practically  in  many  cases  the  final  arbiter.  The  dis- 
trict judges  early  held  that  ''proceedings  in  the  bankruptcy 
case  proper  were  proceedings  in  equity,"  to  be  governed 
by  the  rules  and  analogies  of  equity  jurisprudence,  and  that 
the  construction  should  be  broad  and  liberal,  not  narrow 
and  technical. 

In  the  absence  of  a  bankruptcy  law  and  a  secret  agree- 
ment by  a  debtor  to  prefer  one  creditor  over  another,  un- 
der the  equity  rules,  as  promulgated  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  an  insolvent  could  prefer  one  creditor  over 
another.  But  not  so  under  the  Bankruptcy  Act  of  1867; 
as  the  district  judges,  including  Judge  Gresham,  construed 
it,  all  preferences  were  invalid.  The  object  of  the  law,  as 
they  construed  it,  was  to  prevent  an  insolvent  from  making 
preferences  in  the  payment  of  his  debts.  When  the  Supreme 
Court  reversed  this  rule,  as  it  did  at  the  first  opportunity, 
and  upheld  certain  preferences,  Circuit  Judge  Thomas 
Drummond  took  it  on  himself  to  rebuke  that  most  august 
tribunal.1 

#In  the  Bankruptcy  Act  of  1898,  the  Congress,  in  lan- 
guage too  definite  to  be  construed  or  distinguished,  adopted 
Judge  Drummond 's  rule  and  rejected  that  of  the  Supreme 
Court. 

Always  respectful  to  the  Supreme  Court,  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  always  followed  it.  But  he  would  sometimes 
threaten  to  resign  before  he  followed  it,  and  lack  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  way  it  was  tending  had  much  to  do  with 
his  leaving  the  bench  the  last  time. 

Recognizing  the  power  vested  in  the  twelve  jurors,  he 
felt  it  to  be  his  duty  under  the  law  to  bring  home  to  them 

1  Said  Judge  Drummond:  "  This  case,  that  a  debtor  might,  by  acquiescence,  merely  by 
letting  a  judgment  go  against  him,  especially  if  it  be  brought  about  by  a  warrant  of  attorney 
executed  long  prior  to  his  insolvency,  give  one  creditor  preference  over  another,  rather  took 
the  profession  —  certainly  a  great  many  of  the  district  judges  —  by  surprise." 

Then,  after  pointing  out  that  the  Supreme  Court  judges  were  not  unanimous  in  their 
conclusions,  that  those  whose  judgments  were  in  harmony  reached  that  unison  by  conflict- 
ing reasoning,  Judge  Drummond  distinguished  the  case  he  was  then  considering,  from  any 
decided  by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  knocked  out  the  preference.  Of  course  he  declared  he 
would  follow  the  Supreme  Court  precedents  in  all  cases  in  which  they  applied. 


360       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

every  argument  to  aid  them  in  performing  their  function, 
namely,  weighing  conflicting  evidence  in  a  case.  During 
the  progress  of  a  trial  he  would  not  hesitate  to  assist  a 
young  or  inexperienced  lawyer,  to  advise  a  lawyer  as  to  the 
kind  of  an  argument  to  make  to  a  jury,  or  to  denounce  a 
witness  or  a  party  to  a  suit  within  the  proper  bounds;  for 
denunciation,  sarcasm,  and  invective  are  legitimate  weapons 
in  debate.  He  had  used  them  at  the  bar.  He  would  defend 
a  party  or  a  witness  unjustly  assailed.  In  a  hotly  contested 
lawsuit  he  could  state  the  law,  so  sum  up  the  evidence 
bearing  on  each  side  as  at  the  same  time  to  indicate  to 
the  jury  which  party  should  prevail,  without  leaving  it  to 
the  defeated  party  to  predicate  error  on  the  instructions 
as  a  whole,  because  the  jury  was  left  free  to  adopt  the 
views  of  that  party.  It  is  this  freedom  of  the  jury  that  is 
the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  English  or  American  sys- 
tem of  government.  The  judge  is  a  part  of  the  govern- 
ment.    The  jury  is  not. 

Seldom  it  was  that  a  jury  failed  or  refused  to  find  a 
verdict  as  indicated  to  them  in  the  instructions,  and  but 
seldom  did  my  husband  give  to  a  jury  peremptory  instruc- 
tions to  find  a  particular  verdict.  And  never  did  he,  as 
some  Federal  judges  have  done,  threaten  a  jury  that  if  they 
brought  in  a  verdict  different  from  that  indicated,  it  would 
be  set  aside.  Neither  did  he  ever  reprove  a  jury  that  failed 
to  agree  or  refused  to  find  the  indicated  verdict.  Some- 
times the  argument  of  eminent  counsel  and  clear  instruc- 
tions failed  to  control  the  judgment  of  the  twelve  men. 
Then,  if  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  any  improper 
influence  had  been  brought  to  bear,  he  concluded  the  fault 
was  with  the  eminent  counsel  and  the  man  on  the  bench 
rather  than  with  the  twelve  in  the  box. 

In  1886  Zack  Hoffheimer  was  a  struggling  young  lawyer 
in  a  back  office  in  the  Fort  Dearborn  Building  in  Chicago. 
A  client  was  injured  in  a  collision  at  a  grade  crossing  on 
the  St.    Paul   road.     Eberling  vs.    Chicago,    Milwaukee  & 


UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  361 

St.  Paul  Railroad  Company  was  the  title  of  the  suit.  When 
the  case  came  on  for  trial  Judge  Gresham  had  three  petit 
juries,  and  the  courtroom  and  corridor  were  crowded  with 
parties  and  witnesses.  "Zack"  started  in  with  voluminous 
records  to  prove  that  the  St.  Paul  Company  owned  the 
railroad.  "Hold  on,  young  man,  we  can't  stop  to  listen  to 
your  records.  Mr.  Walker  won't  deny  the  St.  Paul  Com- 
pany owns  the  road.  Will  you,  Mr.  Walker?"  "No,  sir." 
"Now,  get  to  your  case." 

The  plaintiff,  Eberling,  contended  that  at  a  much  fre- 
quented crossing,  the  view  to  which  was  obstructed,  he, 
with  all  due  caution,  looking  and  listening,  drove  on  the 
crossing  and  was  struck  and  injured  by  a  train,  which 
failed  to  sound  the  whistle  or  ring  the  bell.  Edwin  Walker, 
one  of  the  eminent  lawyers  of  his  time,  keen,  forceful,  and 
plausible  to  the  last  degree,  showed  by  his  witnesses  that 
there  was  nothing  to  obstruct  Eberling's  view  as  he  drove 
on  the  track  in  front  of  the  approaching  engine,  and  that 
the  whistle  was  sounded  at  the  whistle  post  and  the  bell 
rung  thence  until  the  crossing  was  reached  and  the  collision 
occurred.  After  a  clear  argument  by  Mr.  Walker,  based 
on  the  evidence,  "Zack"  closed  his  case  in  a  spread-eagle 
speech  about  directors,  private  cars,  and  the  aggressions  of 
corporations;  not  a  word  about  the  facts  in  the  case. 

"Tell  me,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  if  you  can,  how  Eber- 
ling reached  that  crossing  in  time  to  catch  that  train  if  he 
was  exercising  due  care  and  caution  for  his  own  safety," 
began  one  instruction.  Then  followed  an  argument  by  the 
court  for  the  defendant  that  surpassed  that  of  Mr.  Walker, 
'  ■  Zack  "  said.  But  it  was  left  to  the  jury  to  pass  on  the  two 
contentions:  (1)  Whether  it  was  the  fault  alone  of  the 
railroad  company,  and  (2)  whether  Eberling  used  due  care 
and  caution  as  he  approached  the  crossing  to  avoid  being 
injured;  if  not,  he  could  not  recover.  It  was  evening  when 
the  jury  went  out.  ' '  Zack ' '  gave  up  his  case  as  lost.  Twelve 
ordinary  men  would  not  stand  up  against  such  a  charge 


362        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

and  the  clear  opinion  of  the  judge.  Besides,  if  they  found 
a  verdict  for  Eberling,  the  judge  would  promptly  set  it 
aside.  Morning  came  and  a  United  States  marshal  stepped 
into  "Zack's"  office  and  said  Judge  Gresham  would  like 
Mr.  HofTheimer  to  come  to  the  courtroom.  There  was  the 
jury  in  the  box,  and  Mr.  Walker  and  a  crowded  courtroom. 

"Mr.  Horfheimer,  the  jury  has  been  out  all  night  and 
have  not  yet  reached  a  verdict.  Mr.  Walker  is  willing; 
will  you  consent  that  I  send  them  in  charge  of  the  marshal 
to  the  crossing  where  the  collision  occurred?"  Dazed  by 
the  question,   "Zack"  answered,   "Yes,  your  Honor." 

After  viewing  the  premises  the  jury  returned,  went  into 
their  room  and  soon  returned  with  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff, 
and  assessed  his  damages  at  $4,000.  Mr.  Walker  promptly 
made  a  motion  for  a  new  trial.  Still  hardly  realizing  what 
had  happened,  Hoffheimer  met  Judge  Gresham  as  he  left 
the  courtroom.  "Zack,  you  have  won  your  lawsuit,"  said 
the  Judge,  and  the  next  day  the  motion  for  the  new  trial 
was  overruled. 

Now  for  the  application :  the  question  of  the  elimination 
of  grade  crossings  was  acute  at  that  time.  Since  then, 
the  elevation  of  railroad  tracks  in  and  about  Chicago  has 
ended  the  question. 

In  another  case,  in  1879,  a  defendant  was  on  trial  in  the 
Federal  court  at  Indianapolis  before  a  jury  for  having  vio- 
lated the  provisions  of  the  pension  laws  in  taking  for  his 
services,  in  obtaining  a  pension,  a  larger  sum  than  was 
permitted  by  the  statute,  which  was  an  offense  punishable 
by  fine  and  imprisonment.  The  judge  was  always  jealous 
of  the  rights  of  all  soldiers  and  all  pensioners.  During  the 
trial  the  defendant  became  a  witness  in  his  own  behalf,  and 
testified  that  he  had  received  out  of  the  pension  money 
collected  a  sum  equal  to  ten  per  cent,  amounting  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  but  said  further  that  this  sum 
had  been  paid  to  him  by  the  prosecuting  witness,  a  soldier's 
widow,  for  legal  services  rendered  in  successfully  defending 


UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  363 

her  against  a  criminal  prosecution  in  a  State  court.  He 
said  that  he  had  been  appointed  by  that  court  to  defend 
her  for  the  reason  that  she  had  represented  that  she  was 
without  means  to  employ  counsel ;  and  that  for  his  services  in 
that  trial,  which  occupied  several  days,  the  court  had  only 
allowed  him  the  small  sum  of  twenty-five  dollars,  whereas 
his  services  were  of  much  greater  value;  that  immediately 
afterwards  she  employed  him  to  secure  the  allowance  of 
her  pension  claim  then  pending  in  the  department;  that 
when  the  pension  money  was  received  it  was  deposited  to 
her  credit  in  a  local  bank,  and  then  she  said,  "Now  I  will 
pay  you  for  acquitting  me.  What  is  your  fee?"  To  which 
he  replied,  ' '  Whatever  you  please. ' '  And  thereupon  she  had 
said  to  the  cashier  of  the  bank,  "Give  him  ten  per  cent." 
And  the  cashier  thereupon  paid  over  the  sum  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.  The  cashier  was  dead;  she  had  already 
testified  that  she  had  paid  this  sum  as  the  fee  for  obtaining 
the  pension.  At  the  close  of  his  direct  testimony,  the 
prosecuting  attorney  began  the  cross-examination,  which, 
as  Judge  Gresham  thought,  was  being  done  in  a  lazy  man- 
ner, and  turning  to  the  witness  he  said,  "Let  me  ask  this 
witness  a  question  or  two  and  see  if  I  can't  get  at  the 
truth.  Do  you  think  that  the  court  would  have  paid  you 
the  fee  you  received,  if  he  had  known  that  this  woman  had 
a  pension  coming  out  of  which  she  would  pay  you?" 

Mr.  Harris,  the  defendant's  counsel,  interrupted,  saying 
to  the  court,  "While  I  don't  object  to  your  Honor  examin- 
ing my  client,  I  do  object  to  his  being  required  to  answer 
as  to  what  the  court  might  have  done  had  this  woman  told 
him  that  she  had  a  pension  claim,  and  that  she  expected  to 
hire  the  defendant  to  get  it  and  then  intended  to  pay  him 
for  her  defense." 

The  judge  turned,  and  in  his  frank  but  firm  manner 
said,  "I  didn't  put  the  question  that  way."  There  was  no 
stenographer.  And  so  Mr.  Harris  said,  in  a  half  jocular 
and  half  earnest  manner,  "I'll  leave  it  to  the  jury."     The 


364       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

judge  responded  at  once,  " That's  fair.  I'll  leave  it  to  the 
jury,  too."     He  then  turned  to  them  and  said : 

"Here  is  a  question  between  Mr.  Harris,  a  member  of 
the  bar,  and  myself,  the  judge,  and  we  have  agreed  that  you 
shall  decide  between  us.  Now  you  are  not  to  be  controlled 
by  the  fact  that  I  am  on  the  bench  and  Mr.  Harris  is  at  the 
bar,  for  in  this  court  the  bench  and  the  bar  are  all  officers 
of  the  same  court  and  stand  on  an  equality.  Now,  men, 
you  are  to  determine  whether  I  asked  the  question  as  Mr. 
Harris  said  I  did.     Do  your  duty." 

The  jury  took  the  matter  very  seriously  and  gathering 
closely  around  their  foreman,  whispered  together  for  a 
short  while,  and  then  returned  to  their  seats.  Whereupon 
the  judge  said,  "Mr.  Foreman,  are  you  ready  to  report?" 
' '  We  are. "  "  What  is  your  report,  Mr.  Foreman  ? "  '  -  Well, 
Judge,  we  all  think  you're  dead  wrong." 

The  judge  and  everyone  in  the  courtroom,  except  the 
jury,  laughed  heartily.  Then  the  judge,  turning  to  the 
district  attorney,  said,  "Goon,  go  on  in  your  own  way." 

At  the  close  of  the  case  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of 
"Not  guilty."  At  once  the  defendant  arose,  and  with 
tears  running  down  his  face  asked  permission  to  thank  the 
jury  for  his  acquittal.  The  judge  said,  "Yes,  you  may, 
and  I  join  with  you,  for  had  the  verdict  been  otherwise,  I 
might  have  felt  that  I  had  wrongfully  influenced  the  jury 
in  the  discharge  of  their  duty." 

During  an  investigation  by  the  regular  grand  jury,  of 
the  affairs  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Indianapolis, 
the  district  attorney  was  instructed  by  the  attorney-general 
that  he  had  been  ordered  by  President  Hayes  to  discon- 
tinue the  investigation.  Thereupon  the  grand  jurors  filed 
into  open  court  during  the  trial  of  a  case  in  which  Thomas 
A.  Hendricks  was  one  of  the  counsel  and  asked  what  they 
they  should  do  in  the  premises.  "The  President  of  the 
United  States  has  no  more  control  over  your  deliberations 
than  the  Czar  of  Russia.     You  have  been  told  what  the 


UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    JUDGE  365 

law  is;  if  you  find  it  has  been  violated,  you  should  return 
indictments  against  the  guilty  parties."  Subsequently, 
there  were  indictments.  As  the  jury  retired  to  their  room, 
the  judge  said,  "Go  on,  Governor."  At  the  adjournment 
of  court,  Governor  Hendricks  asked,  "Don't  you  fear  those 
instructions  will  get  you  into  trouble?"  "It  hadn't  so 
occurred  to  me,"  Judge  Gresham  replied.  At  the  governor's 
instance,  they  were  reduced  to  writing  and  filed  with  the 
clerk,  but  never  seem  to  have  been  included  in  the  reports.1 


1  The  reported  opinions  of  Judge  Gresham  while  he  was  on  the  district  bench  are  found 
in  Volumes  2  to  n  of  Bissell's  Reports,  and  Volumes  2  to  17  of  the  Federal  Reporter. 

24 


\J 


CHAPTER  XXII 
RAILROAD  RECEIVERSHIPS 


MONON  ROAD  DIFFICULTIES  —  RAILWAY  MORTGAGES  UN- 
LIKE OTHER  MORTGAGES — SUPREME  COURT  UPHOLDS  JUDGE 
DRUMMOND'S  CONCLUSION  AS  TO  RAILWAYS  BEING  PUBLIC 
CONCERNS  —  CONTROVERSY  OVER  MR.  PIERCE  AS  RECEIVER 
—  LEGISLATION  CONCERNING  PUBLIC  SERVICE  CORPORA- 
TIONS. 

/^NE  of  Walter  Q.  Gresham's  first  judicial  acts  brought 
^-^  him  in  touch  with  a  question  that  became  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  the  country, —  the  public  character  of  the 
railroads,  their  organization,  reorganization,  and  the  integ- 
rity of  their  management.  It  was  a  departure  from  funda- 
mentals to  hold  that  the  earnings  of  a  railroad  shall  be 
applied  in  the  first  instance  to  the  payment  of  wages  and 
salaries,  for  supplies  like  coal,  oil,  tools,  machinery,  rails, 
engines  and  cars,  and  for  balances  to  connecting  lines  in 
order  to  keep  the  railroad  in  operation,  before  any  payments 
are  made  on  account  of  the  capital  that  went  to  construct 
the  road ;  in  other  words,  bondholders  and  stockholders  only 
get  the  net  over  and  above  the  cost  of  maintenance  and 
operation.  As  a  corollary  to  this  it  was  said  that  in  the 
case  of  insolvency  and  a  receivership  that  the  receiver,  after 
discharging  the  costs  of  operation,  should  use  his  net  in 
paying  the  arrears  to  labor  and  supply  men  that  existed  at 
the  time  he  was  appointed,  before  making  any  payment  on 
the  interest  or  principal  of  the  bonds,  especially  in  cases 
where  the  railroad  company  had  used  the  earnings  that 
should  have  met  the  cost  of  operation  and  maintenance  in 
paying  the  interest  on  the  bonds  in  order  to  postpone  a 

366 


RAILROAD     RECEIVERSHIPS  367 

foreclosure.  In  some  cases,  like  those  last  mentioned,  in 
the  event  of  the  sale  of  the  railroad,  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
were  and  are  applied  to  liquidate  the  unpaid  labor  and 
supply  claims  before  the  bondholders  realize  anything. 

When  Judge  Gresham  went  on  the  bench  this  ques- 
tion had  been  suggested  in  a  case  that  had  been  pending  for 
twelve  years  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for' 
the  District  of  Indiana,  namely,  Williamson,  Trustee,  against 
New  Albany  &  Salem  Railroad  Company,  afterwards  the 
Louisville,  New  Albany  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company,  now 
the  Chicago,  Indianapolis  &  Louisville  Railroad  Company, 
or  the  "Monon  Line."1  The  New  Albany  &  Salem  Rail- 
road Company,  organized  to  build  a  railroad  from  New 
Albany  thirty  miles  to  Salem,  Indiana,  was  one  of  the  first 
railroad  corporations  chartered  by  the  State  of  Indiana. 
"Its  history,"  an  old  lawyer  for  the  plaintiff  told  the  jury, 
in  a  hotly  contested  personal  injury  suit,  "is  written  in 
every  graveyard  along  the  line."  It  began  by  making  a 
mortgage  to  secure  funds  to  construct  and  complete  its 
line;  and  as  it  extended  north,  finally  to  Michigan  City, 
two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  miles,  it  executed  in  all  five 
mortgages.  These  mortgages  covered,  in  addition  to  the 
railroad,  acquired  and  to  be  acquired,  all  the  personal 
property  of  the  corporation  and  its  earnings. 

In  1857,  David  D.  Williamson,  the  trustee  in  these  mort- 
gages, brought  a  suit  in  the  United  States  Court  for  the 
District  of  Indiana  entitled  as  above,  and  asked,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  foreclosure  of  the  mortgages,  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  receiver  for  the  railroad  corporation  and  all  its 
property,  because  the  net  earnings  from  the  operation 
of  the  road  had  been  used  in  paying  laborers  and  strikers, 
in  paying  contractors  for  construction  work  done  on  the 
extension  of  the  line,  and  in  repaying  borrowed  money, 
although  leaving  much  still  unpaid,  instead  of  paying  the 
interest  on  the  mortgages  that  fell  due  January  1,   1857. 

1 1  Bissell  198. 


368       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Justice  McLain  of  the  Supreme  Court,  sitting  as  the  circuit 
justice,  in  November,  1857,  heard  the  motion  for  the  re- 
ceiver. He  declined,  inasmuch  as  the  appointment  of  a 
receiver  was  a  matter  within  the  discretion  of  the  court* 
then  to  appoint  one,  but  retained  jurisdiction,  with  the 
right  to  Williamson  to  renew  his  motion,  because,  as  the 
justice  said:  "If  a  receiver  had  been  in  possession,  I  would 
have  required  him  to  do  what  has  been  done  by  the  com- 
pany." Therefore  he  ordered  the  company  to  report  to 
the  court  at  stated  intervals  the  gross  and  net  earnings, 
and  that  the  net  earnings  be  apportioned  between  the 
mortgage  creditors  whose  interest  was  in  arrear,  and  the 
holders  of  the  floating  debt  incurred  to  meet  operating 
expenses  and  the  completion  of  the  line  north.  That  the 
use  of  the  earnings  and  the  borrowed  money  in  completing 
the  line  had  benefited  the  holders  of  the  bonds,  aside  from 
the  consent  of  some  of  the  bondholders,  was  the  justifica- 
tion Justice  McLain  made  for  his  ruling.  Not  a  word  did 
he  utter  about  there  being  any  difference  between  a  mort- 
gage on  the  property  of  a  public  service  corporation  and  a 
mortgage  on  a  farm  or  a  house.  There  were  few  consent 
orders,  such  as  the  change  of  the  corporate  name  of  the 
railroad  company,  no  reports,  but  proper  continuances  from 
term  to  term,  and  thus  the  case  stood  until  the  November 
term,  1869,  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the 
District  of  Indiana. 

Meanwhile  Williamson,  as  trustee  under  the  mortgages 
before  mentioned  but  representing  only  a  part  of  the  bond- 
holders secured  by  these  mortgages,  without  notice  to  the 
other  bondholders  and  without  leave  of  the  Federal  court 
but  with  the  consent  of  the  corporation,  had,  by  proceed- 
ings regular  on  their  face,  procured  from  the  Common  Pleas 
Court  of  White  County,  Indiana,  the  appointment  of  a 
receiver  for  the  railroad  and  all  the  property  of  the  railroad 
company,  then  a  decree  of  foreclosure  and  a  sale  and  a 
conveyance  on  the  21st  day  of  June,  1869,  by  the  sheriff 


RAILROAD     RECEIVERSHIPS  369 

of  White  County,  Indiana,  of  all  the  property  of  the  com- 
pany to  a  corporation  recently  organized  under  the  laws  of 
Indiana  differing  in  name  from  the  old  only  in  that  the 
word  "Railway"  was  used  instead  of  "Railroad."  From 
this  reorganization,  typical  in  many  respects  of  railroad 
"wrecking,"  except  the  few  bondholders  and  stockholders 
who  brought  it  about,  all  the  other  bondholders,  stock- 
holders, and  floating  creditors  were  excluded.  August  1, 
1869,  Williamson  died. 

November  1,  1869,  John  S.  Shaw,  one  of  the  frozen-out 
bondholders,  appeared  before  the  new  district  judge  in  the 
case  of  Williamson,  Trustee,  vs.  New  Albany  &  Salem  Rail- 
road Company,  showed  the  proceedings  by  the  White  County 
Common  Pleas  Court,  suggested  the  death  of  Williamson, 
showed  that  Charles  E.  Bill,  the  alternative  trustee  to  Wil- 
liamson in  the  five  trust  deeds  or  mortgages  of  the  New 
Albany  &  Salem  Railroad  Company,  was  alive  and  living 
in  New  York,  and  asked  that  cause  be  shown  why  Bill 
should  not  be  substituted  as  complainant  instead  of  Wil- 
liamson, why  a  receiver  should  not  be  appointed  for  the 
Louisville,  New  Albany  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company,  the 
old  company,  and  why  he,  Shaw,  should  not  be  made  a 
party  to  the  suit,  to  be  entitled  Bill,  Trustee,  vs.  Louisville, 
New  Albany  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company,  to  look  after 
his  own  and  the  interest  of  those  bondholders  similarly 
situated  as  he  was. 

November  10,  1869,  Henry  Crawford,  one  of  our  towns- 
men, who  afterwards  became  famous  as  a  lawyer  in  the 
reorganization  of  railroads,  one  of  the  ablest  in  his  line,  ap- 
peared for  George  L.  Schuyler,  the  president  of  the  Louis- 
ville, New  Albany  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company  or  the 
"Monon  Company,"  and  resisted  Shaw's  motion.  James 
Hughes  and  Samuel  Huff  represented  Mr.  Shaw.  After  a 
full  hearing  an  order  was  entered  that  Bill  be  substituted 
as  complainant  instead  of  Williamson,  that  Shaw  be  made 
a  party  to  protect  his  interests,  that  the  bondholders  who 


370       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

had  procured  the  White  County  proceedings  be  made 
parties  to  answer  as  to  their  acts,  that  as  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  receiver  the  case  be  continued,  and  that  in  the 
meantime  a  copy  of  the  order  as  entered  be  served  on  Bill 
in  New  York  and  proof  of  the  service  on  Bill  be  made  on 
or  before  the  ist  day  of  February,  1870. 

At  the  time  appointed,  Bill,  as  the  survivor  and  suc- 
cessor in  trust  to  Williamson,  appeared  in  the  suit  in  the 
Federal  court,  and  then  as  complainant  lined  up  with  the 
wreckers  and  moved  to  dismiss  the  suit.  This  motion  after 
argument  was  overruled  June  4,  1870,  by  David  Davis,  the 
circuit  justice,  while  District  Judge  Gresham  was  laid  up 
with  a  broken  leg. 

November  29,  1870,  Thomas  Drummond,  the  circuit 
judge,  and  his  associate,  District  Judge  Gresham,  sustained 
the  balance  of  Mr.  Shaw's  motion  and  appointed  George 
H.  Chapman  receiver  of  the  Louisville,  New  Albany  & 
Chicago  Railroad  Company.  Judge  Drummond  delivered 
an  elaborate  opinion,  showing  the  necessity  for  this  action, 
that  the  proceedings  in  the  White  County  Court  were  col- 
lusive and  void  and  if  enforced  would  put  a  minority  of 
the  bondholders  and  stockholders  into  absolute  ownership 
of  the  property  of  the  Louisville,  New  Albany  &  Chicago 
Railroad  Company,  worth  many  times  the  face  of  their 
securities  or  their  interest  in  the  property,  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  majority  of  the  bondholders  and  stockholders  of  that 
company,  to  say  nothing  of  the  claims  of  the  unsecured 
creditors.  Disclaiming  any  purpose  to  interfere  with  the 
rightful  jurisdiction  of  the  State  court,  no  matter  how  much 
they  might  regret  it,  they  could  not  shrink  from  a  contest 
with  that  court,  for  by  Justice  McLain's  orders  in  1857  and 
the  subsequent  orders  the  property  in  controversy  had  been 
in  the  interim  as  much  in  the  custody  of  the  Federal  court 
as  if  a  receiver  had  been  appointed  in  1857. 

Mr.  Schuyler,  as  president  of  the  "Monon  Company," 
refused  to  turn  over  the  property  when  General  Chapman 


RAILROAD    RECEIVERSHIPS  371 

came  to  New  Albany,  the  headquarters  of  the  company,  to 
take  possession,  standing  on  the  proceedings  in  the  White 
County  Court.  There  was  much  excitement  at  New  Al- 
bany, and  talk  of  what  would  be  the  consequences  of 
a  conflict  of  jurisdiction  between  the  State  and  Federal 
courts. 

Meeting  Henry  Crawford  on  the  street,  Judge  Gresham 
said:  "Harry,  you  and  your  client  will  get  into  trouble  if 
you  continue  to  defy  our  authority.  You  should  advise 
them  to  acquiesce."  The  advice  was  given,  and  without 
further  friction  brought  prompt  acquiescence.  Many  peo- 
ple said:  "Somebody  should  have  been  put  into  jail  for 
contempt  of  court."  That  was  a  power  Judge  Gresham 
believed  in  exercising  sparingly,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
he  never  did  exercise  it.  To  the  lawyers,  as  officers  of  his 
court,  Judge  Gresham  never  hesitated  to  appeal,  seldom  to 
threaten.  Through  his  associates  at  the  bar  he  often 
worked  more  successfully  than  through  the  marshal. 

In  the  order  appointing  General  Chapman  receiver  of 
the  Louisville,  New  Albany  &  Chicago  Railroad  Company, 
he  was  directed  to  pay  all  claims  on  the  payrolls,  all  claims 
for  supplies,  balance  to  connecting  lines,  and  claims  for 
stock  killed  that  had  accrued  for  a  period  of  three  months 
previous  to  his  appointment.  This  is  the  first  order  of  that 
kind  ever  made  in  a  contested  suit.1 

It  was  in  this  suit  and  in  other  suits  in  which  receivers 
were  appointed  in  the  Seventh  Circuit  that  Judge  Thomas 
Drummond  developed  the  policy  first  suggested  by  Justice 
McLain,  and  finally  adopted  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  that  railroads  were  public  utilities  and  that 
in  the  management  of  railroads  by  receivers  in  foreclosure 
proceedings,  mortgage  liens  might  be  displaced  in  favor  of 
parties  with  claims  in  which  ordinary  litigation,  and  liti- 
gation prior  to  that  time,  would  be  subject  to  the  mortgage. 

At  one  time  more  than  half  of  the  railroad  mileage  in 

lThis  order  is  in  the  court  records  but  not  in  the  books. 


372       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Illinois  and  Wisconsin  was  operated  by  receivers  appointed 
by  Judge  Drummond  and  the  Federal  district  judges  within 
those  States.  The  question  arising  out  of  the  operation  of 
a  railroad  Judge  Drummond  discussed  with  his  " brethren," 
the  district  judges,  as  he  called  them.  He  discussed  such 
questions  with  my  husband. 

Although  Judge  Drummond  had  said  in  1864,  in  the 
Chicago  &  Alton  foreclosure,1  that  "a  railroad  mortgage  is 
the  same  as  a  mortgage  on  a  farm  or  house,"  and  therefore 
he  could  not  allow  claims  for  supplies  that  went  to  better 
or  improve  the  road  before  the  appointment  of  a  receiver, 
yet  the  exigencies  of  the  situation,  as  he  himself  soon  said 
and  often  repeated,  forced  a  change  in  the  rules.  "A  rail- 
way mortgage  is  not  like  an  ordinary  mortgage  on  a  farm 
or  a  house.  A  railway  is  a  matter  of  public  concern." 
Operated  largely  on  credit  for  labor  and  supplies,  Judge 
Drummond  said,  when  applications  were  made  to  him  to 
appoint  a  receiver,  that  arrears  for  wages  and  supplies  that 
kept  the  railroad  in  operation  should  first  be  liquidated. 
This  he  did  under  the  equity  powers  of  the  court. 

The  records  of  1859  in  the  clerk's  office  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Northern  District  of 
Illinois  show  that  originally,  in  1859,  in  appointing  the  re- 
ceiver in  this  identical  Chicago  &  Alton  foreclosure,  Judge 
Drummond  had  directed  him  to  pay  certain  unliquidated 
claims  which  had  accrued  in  the  operation  of  the  road  prior 
to  his  appointment.  This  order  is  nowhere  mentioned  in 
the  reports  of  the  decisions  of  the  courts.  It  was  in  large 
degree  a  consent  order  —  that  is,  the  mortgagees  or  the 
bondholders  consented,  indeed  urged,  the  appointment  of 
the  receiver  subject  to  the  payment  of  the  claims.  Judg- 
ment creditors,  that  is,  other  creditors  than  the  bondhold- 
ers, objecting  to  the  appointment  of  a  receiver  and  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  court,  were  charging  that  the  mortgage 
securing  the  bonds  was  invalid,  because  it  undertook  to 

l  Denniston  vs.  Chicago,  Alton  &  St.  Louis  Railroad  Company,  4  Bissell  414. 


RAILROAD    RECEIVERSHIPS  373 

cover  real  estate  —  right  of  way  and  station  ground — and 
personal  property,  such  as  engines,  cars,  handcars,  tools,  and 
other  personal  property,  including  earnings.  There  was  no 
statute  of  Illinois  then  or  now  authorizing  real  and  personal 
property  to  be  covered  by  the  same  mortgage.  In  the  or- 
dinary mortgage  on  a  farm  or  a  house  in  Illinois  at  that 
time  personal  property  could  not  also  be  included.  In 
other  words,  a  creditor  could  only  secure  a  lien  on  personal 
property  by  a  chattel  mortgage,  executed  and  recorded  with 
formalities  different  from  those  that  attended  the  real  estate 
mortgage.  The  judgment  creditors  argued  that  engines, 
cars,  tools,  coal,  and  other  supplies  are  personal  property. 
Assuming  the  validity  of  the  railroad  mortgages  as  to  the 
right  of  way  and  the  depots,  the  judgment  creditors  argued 
that  the  real  estate  mortgage  did  not  cover  the  cars  and 
engines,  and  therefore,  the  liens  acquired  by  the  executions 
issued  on  their  judgments,  and  levied  on  certain  cars  and 
engines,  were  the  first  liens  on  the  engines  and  cars.  To 
have  recognized  their  claims  would  have  dismembered  the 
property,  for  without  engines  and  cars  a  mere  railroad  track 
would  not  be  much  of  a  railroad.  This  forced  the  courts 
to  differentiate  the  railroad  from  the  farm  and  to  declare 
that  the  chattel  mortgage  acts  of  Illinois  and  of  other  States 
did  not  apply  to  rolling  stock,  conceded  by  all  to  be  personal 
property,  neither  did  the  statutes  as  to  the  ordinary  real 
estate  mortgage,  such  as  covered  a  house  or  a  farm,  apply 
to  a  railroad  mortgage.  Under  the  law  in  Illinois,  as  in 
most  States,  when  real  estate  is  sold  under  execution  or  on 
foreclosure,  the  debtor  is  given  the  right  for  a  year  or  more 
to  redeem  by  paying  his  creditors  in  full.  But  it  was  de- 
cided this  right  to  redeem,  or  "equity  of  redemption," 
of  which  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  said 
an  equity  court  could  not  deprive  a  debtor,  did  not  apply 
to  railroad  property.  In  other  words,  that  in  selling  a  rail- 
road many  miles  in  length,  covering  many  different  parcels 
of  real  estate,  and  including   engines,  cars,    and    tools,    it 


374       LIFE     OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM       ' 

should  be  sold  as  an  entirety,  and  that  there  should  be  no 
equity  of  redemption. 

It  was  further  objected  in  1859,  in  the  Chicago  &  Alton 
foreclosure  as  in  other  cases,  that  inasmuch  as  the  railroad 
mortgages  provided  that  the  bondholders  could  take  pos- 
session of  the  railroad  and  appropriate  to  their  own  use  the 
income  and  earnings,  therefore  a  Federal  court  had  no  power 
to  appoint  a  receiver  at  their  instance.  So  in  order  to  get 
within  the  protecting  arm  of  the  Federal  government,  the 
bondholders  in  the  first  instance  made  concessions  to  judg- 
ment creditors,  and  to  other  creditors — they  agreed  to  pay  all 
sorts  of  claims.  The  courts  in  "  dispensing  "  statutes  had  to 
do  the  same.  This  distinction  the  Supreme  Court  after- 
wards ignored  when  the  bondholders  recanted  their  position 
as  supplicants,  as  disclosed  in  Judge  Drummond's  orders  in 
1859  and  his  words  in  1864,  and  demanded  as  a  matter  of 
right  that  the  court,  by  a  receiver,  recognize  only  in  the 
first  instance  the  mortgage  lien.  Judge  Drummond's  prop- 
osition that  a  railroad  mortgage  is  not  like  an  ordinary 
mortgage  on  a  farm  or  house  was  resisted  over  and  over 
again.  One  eminent  lawyer,  Abram  W.  Hendricks,  who 
always  appeared  for  the  bondholders,  after  a  heated  argu- 
ment, in  which  he  could  not  change  the  judge's  opinion, 
said :  ' '  God  rules  in  Israel,  but  Thomas  Drummond  in  the 
Seventh  Circuit." 

A  popular  phrase  was,  "It  was  paying  the  Tin  Bucket 
Brigade  first."  Colonel  R.  G.  Ingersoll  coined  this  ex- 
pression in  an  argument  in  which  he  appeared  for  the  bond- 
holders, but  its  utterance  made  more  for  the  engineers, 
firemen,  trainmen,  and  trackmen  whose  claims  for  back  pay 
he  was  resisting,  than  his  eloquence  and  logic  for  the  bond- 
holders. Much  of  the  credit  and  discredit  for  first  incor- 
porating the  principle  in  our  jurisprudence  was  laid  at  Judge 
Gresham's  door.  Neither  are  his  due.  But  in  blazing  the 
way,  Judge  Drummond  had  Judge  Gresham's  cordial  sup- 
port.    Indeed,  the  junior  repeatedly  urged  his  senior  and 


RAILROAD    RECEIVERSHIPS  375 

superior  to  put  his  views  in  writing  in  some  of  the  numerous 
cases  that  came  before  him.  Judge  Gresham  did  not  think 
it  comported  with  the  proprieties  to  write  an  opinion  in 
such  a  case  so  long  as  his  superior  had  not,  in  a  formal 
written  opinion,  recanted  his  views  as  expressed  in  1864  in 
the  Chicago  &  Alton  case. 

In  the  practical  operation  of  railroads  by  receivers, 
Judge  Gresham  followed  Judge  Drummond's  oral  views  and 
the  practice  the  exigencies  dictated.  He  did  so  in  the  or- 
der appointing  General  George  H.  Chapman,  in  November, 
1874,  receiver  of  the  Lafayette,  Muncie  &  Bloomington 
Railroad  Company. 

November  1,  1874,  Judge  Drummond  appointed  Gen- 
eral James  H.  Wilson  receiver  of  the  St.  Louis  &  South- 
eastern Railroad  Company,  which  built  the  railroad  from 
St.  Louis  to  Nashville  via  Evansville,  Indiana,  now  a  part 
of  the  "L.  &  N."  system.  April  1,  1875,  in  response  to 
a  rule  to  show  cause  why  certain  judgments  theretofore 
rendered  in  the  State  courts  against  the  railroad  company 
for  damages  for  killing  stock  and  for  ties  furnished  should 
not  be  paid,  Judge  Asa  Iglehart,  the  counsel  for  the  re- 
ceiver and  the  bondholders  —  it  was  they  who  had  secured 
the  receiver  —  strenuously  objected.  Elijah  M.  Spencer,  a 
practicing  attorney  of  Mt.  Vernon,  Indiana,  and  General 
J.  M.  Shackelford  of  Evansville  represented  the  claimants. 
Judge  Iglehart,  than  whom  no  one  was  abler  or  more  eminent 
in  his  profession,  insisted  that  the  rule  of  law  requiring  the 
discharge  of  the  mortgage  or  bond  obligations  first,  or  before 
the  payment  of  judgment  for  stock  killed  and  for  ties,  was 
inflexible.  To  quote  an  eyewitness,  Judge  John  W.  Spencer 
of  the  Indiana  Supreme  Court  and  the  son  of  the  chief 
counsel  for  the  claimants : 

Judge  Gresham  mildly  expostulated  that  the  rule  should  not 
be  literally  enforced,  as  in  doing  so  it  would  work  a  hardship  — 
injustice.  Judge  Iglehart  contended  for  a  rigid  compliance  with 
the  rule,  and  in  an  animated  argument  iterated  and  reiterated 


376       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

that  the  rule  was  inflexible.  Judge  Gresham  asked  him  a  few- 
times  if  he  would  urge  the  inflexibility  of  the  rule.  "Yes," 
vehemently  replied  Judge  Iglehart .  ' '  Well, ' '  said  Judge  Gresham, 
"in  this  instance  we  will  flex  her  a  little.  To  do  otherwise  would 
fail  of  doing  justice,  and  it  may  save  the  receiver  and  the  court 
great  inconvenience  and  trouble,  for  otherwise  those  Wabash 
farmers  are  liable  to  take  up  a  part  of  this  railroad  and  throw  it 
into  the  Wabash  River." 

Equity  or  justice  to  the  individual  was  the  only  thing 
that  could  give  the  equity  courts,  when  acting  as  part  of 
the  administrative  power  of  the  Federal  government,  the 
confidence  of  the  people  and  of  the  local  authorities  —  a 
thing  that  helped,  if  it  did  not  enable,  the  Federal  court  of 
the  National  government  to  perform  its  functions. 

It  was  not  until  1878  that  Judge  Drummond  put  his 
views  for  his  policy  in  writing,  when  a  final  stand  was  made 
against  him  by  the  bondholders  because  of  the  large  amount 
of  claims  he  proposed  to  make  them  pay  before  they  could 
get  possession  of  their  railroad  after  they  had  bought  it  at 
a  foreclosure  sale.1  Exhaustive  arguments  were  made  by 
Ashbel  Green,  the  author  of  standard  textbooks,  J.  D. 
Campbell,  General  Benjamin  Harrison,  R.  E.  Williamson, 
J.  Augustus  Johnson,  G.  W.  Parker,  and  Charles  W.  Fair- 
banks against  the  judge's  policy.  John  M.  Butler,  William 
A.  Ketchum,  Samuel  M.  Harrington,  and  A.  J.  Gallagher 
defended  it.  It  is  significant  that  Judge  Drummond  ad- 
mitted that  there  was  no  legal  principle  or  equitable  rule 
for  his  course.  But  if  we  admit  the  premises  that  a  railroad 
mortgage  is  not  like  a  mortgage  on  a  farm,  and  that  the 
appointment  of  a  receiver  is  a  matter  in  the  discretion  of 
the  court,  there  is  no  escape  from  his  conclusion : 

The  appointment  of  a  receiver  is,  to  a  great  extent,  a  matter 
of  discretion  in  the  court,  and  it  has  been  thought  that  the  court 
might  require  the  receiver  to  pay  certain  of  these  claims,  and  even 
hold  the  property  subject  to  them ;   not  as  a  lien  on  the  road,  but 

1  Turner  vs.  Indianapolis,  Bloomington  &  Western  R.  R.  Co.,  8  Bissell  315, 


RAILROAD    RECEIVERSHIPS  377 

in  the  exercise  of  the  equitable  discretion  of  the  court  in  dealing 
with  property  which  is  of  a  peculiar  character,  and  under  cir- 
cumstances of  which  the  past  system  of  litigation  affords  no 
example  or  precedent.  Then  it  was  that  Judge  Drummond 
said,  "It  [a  railroad  mortgage]  is  not  like  an  ordinary  mortgage  on 
a  farm  or  a  house.     A  railway  is  a  matter  of  public  concern." 

During  the  discussions  which  have  taken  place  on  this  sub- 
ject, the  allowance  of  these  back  claims  has  been  sometimes  called 
a  lien,  but  in  point  of  fact,  it  never  has  been,  nor  can  it  be,  justly 
so  considered,  but,  as  already  stated,  as  an  exercise  of  the  equitable 
power  of  the  court  in  the  premises. 

If  necessary,  in  order  to  make  a  railroad  safe  to  operate, 
Judge  Drummond  would  use  the  surplus  earnings  of  the 
receivership  to  purchase  new  ties,  iron  or  steel  rails  or  rolling 
stock,  or  in  building  bridges,  even,  instead  of  paying  the 
"Tin  Bucket  Brigade"  for  back  wages.  But  if  so,  he 
would  require  the  bondholders  to  pay  the  back  claims 
because  the  surplus  earnings  of  the  receivership  which 
should  have  been  applied  in  payment  of  wages  had  been 
used  to  better  the  property.  Especially  would  he  do  this 
if  before  the  receivership  money  due  for  wages  had  been 
diverted  to  pay  interest.  "It  has  not  infrequently  hap- 
pened that  railroads  which  were  comparatively  worthless 
when  they  came  into  the  possession  of  the  court,  have  become, 
under  its  administration,  valuable  property."  And  his  final 
words  were:  "The  experience  of  the  court  has  satisfied  it 
that  it  would  be  well  nigh  impossible,  looking  at  things  as 
they  actually  exist,  to  operate  railroads  by  receivers  without 
providing  for  payment  of  claims  such  as  labor  and  supply 
and  other  claims  before  applying  the  proceeds  of  the  property 
to  the  payment  of  the  bondholders'  claims." 

In  many  cases  in  which  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  has  passed  on  this  question  it  has  given  many  reasons 
for  its  conclusions  —  like  a  woman's,  not  all  consistent, — 
but  it  finally  came  to  Judge  Drummond 's  conclusion,  para- 
phrasing his  words,  ' '  that  a  railroad  mortgage  is  not  like  a 


378       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

farm  mortgage;  a  railway  is  a  matter  of  public  concern." 
Before  it  did  so  it  reversed,  criticized,  and  rebuked  Judge 
Gresham  for  following  Judge  Drummond's  rule.  In  order 
to  do  so,  it  had  to  retrace  some  of  the  steps  and  use  as  its 
major  premise  Judge  Drummond's  discarded  language  of 
1864  in  the  Chicago  &  Alton  case. 

When  it  came  to  public  service  corporations,  Judge 
Gresham  followed  Judge  Drummond,  who,  that  the  pur- 
pose of  the  legislature  might  prevail,  took  the  same  broad 
view  in  construing  the  legislation  of  Illinois  and  Indiana 
looking  to  the  formation  of  connecting  and  through  lines 
of  railroads,  that  validated  the  mortgages  of  railroad  corpor- 
ations. Justice  Harlan  on  the  circuit  followed  this  meth- 
od of  statutory  construction,  but  they  were  all  reversed1 
by  the  Supreme  Court,  which  held  that  the  grant  of  cor- 
porate powers  to  railroad  corporations  whereby  one  might 
acquire  the  right  to  operate  the  railroad  —  not  a  competi- 
tor —  of  another  so  as  to  make  a  through  direct  line,  should 
be  strictly  construed,  and  that  any  contract  or  lease  — 
and  a  lease,  the  Supreme  Court  said,  was  not  a  contract  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term  —  not  within  the  strict  letter 
of  the  statute  was  void,  or  ultra  vires  the  powers  of  the  cor- 
poration. This  rule  of  construction  would  have  invalidated 
many  of  the  railroad  mortgages  the  Supreme  Court  sus- 
tained. The  cases  arose  out  of  the  Vanderbilt  and  Penn- 
sylvania interests  endeavoring  to  reach  the  Mississippi  by 
leasing  lines  of  railroads  crossing  the  States  of  Ohio,  Ind- 
iana, and  Illinois,  and  guaranteeing  the  rental  of  the  lesser 
companies. 

The  doctrine  of  fellow  servant  Judge  Gresham  never 
believed  in,  and  he  was  never  called  on  to  apply  it.  De- 
fects in  machinery  were  not  one  of  the  risks  an  employee 
assumed.  Promptness  and  expedition  being  required  of 
railroad  employees  —  especially  a  brakeman  making  a  coup- 
ling,—  safe  conditions  were,  on  the  other  hand,  guaranteed 

1  St.  Louis,  Alton  &  Terre  Haute  vs.  Pennsylvania  Company. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  GREAT  RAILROAD  STRIKE  OF  1877 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  THE  STRIKE  —  REDUCTION  OF 
WAGES  OF  RAILROAD  EMPLOYEES  —  STRIKE  BEGINS  IN  WEST 
VIRGINIA  —  SPREADS  TO  PITTSBURGH  AND  INDIANAPOLIS  — 
JUDGE  GRESHAM  PREPARES  TO  HANDLE  THE  SITUATION 
—  APPOINTS  OLD  SOLDIERS  UNITED  STATES  MARSHALS  TO 
PROTECT  PROPERTY  AND  MOVE  TRAINS  —  MILITARY  ORGANI- 
ZATION EFFECTED  TO  SUPPORT  MARSHALS  —  POWER  OF 
FEDERAL  COURTS  CONSIDERED  —  ARREST  OF  STRIKERS  WHO 
INTERFERED  WITH  MOVEMENT  OF  TRAINS  ON  ROADS  OPER- 
ATED  BY  RECEIVERS. 

'T^HE  depression  following  the  panic  of  1873  was  perhaps 
■*■  the  longest  continued  that  ever  followed  a  reaction 
such  as  always  comes  after  a  period  of  expansion,  inflation, 
and  speculation.  Many  railroad  corporations  had  become 
insolvent  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  and  their 
roads  were  operated  by  receivers  appointed  by  Federal 
courts.  Among  those,  in  part,  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the  District  of  Indiana 
were  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Railroad  from  Cincinnati  to 
St.  Louis,  with  a  branch  from  Vernon,  Indiana,  to  Louis- 
ville, now  part  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  system;  the  Indi- 
anapolis, Cincinnati  &  LaFayette,  the  White  Water  Valley 
Railroad,  the  Cincinnati,  Muncie  &  Fort  Wayne,  now 
part  of  the  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis,  or 
"Big  Four"  system  of  railroads;  the  LaFayette,  Muncie 
&  Bloomington,  now  the  Lake  Erie  &  Western;  the  Lo- 
gansport,  Crawfordsville  &  Southwestern;  the  road  from 
Logansport  to  Terre  Haute,  now  a  part  of  the  Vandalia 
system;  and  the  St.  Louis  &  Southeastern,   the  road  from 

379 


380       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

St.  Louis  through  Evansville  to  Nashville,  now  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  Louisville  &  Nashville  system. 

Coming  down  to  1877,  there  had  been  several  reduc- 
tions in  the  wages  of  railroad  employees.  Still  further  re- 
ductions averaging  10  per  cent  were  to  go  into  effect  Aug- 
ust 1  of  that  year.  On  many  roads  the  wages  were  as  much 
as  six  months  in  arrears.  The  payrolls  were  postponed  to 
meet  the  interest  on  the  bonds  secured  by  mortgages  on 
the  railroads.  But  this  was  no  longer  true  of  the  railroads 
operated  by  receivers,  and  neither  was  there  to  be  any 
reduction  in  the  pay  of  the  wages  of  the  men  employed  by 
the  receivers. 

The  wages  paid  the  men  were  on  the  average  as  follows  : 
Freight  conductors  before  the  panic  of  1873,  Per  day,  $2.14; 
in  1877,  $1.71.  Freight  brakemen  before  the  panic  of  1873, 
$2.05  to  $1.80;  in  1877,  $1.42  to  $1.15.  Switchmen  before 
the  panic  of  1873,  $1.90  per  day;  in  1877,  $1.46.  Freight 
firemen  before  the  panic  in  1873,  $2-55  to  $2.05  per  day; 
in  1877,  $1.90  to  $1.32.  Switchmen,  $60  per  month  before 
the  panic  in  1873,  and  $40  to  $45  per  month  in  1877.  Yard 
engineers  before  the  panic  in  1873,  $2.90  per  day  and  $2.02 
in  1877.  Yard  firemen  $1.50  before  the  panic  in  1873,  and 
$1.20  in  1877.  On  some  of  the  roads  there  were  higher 
wages,  but  such  roads  were  exceptions. 

In  June,  1877,  and  the  early  part  of  July,  all  over  the 
country  there  were  conferences  between  the  men  and  the 
managements.  In  some  conferences  the  men  simply  pro- 
tested against  the  reductions;  in  others  they  demanded  the 
restoration  of  the  scales  of  1873.  But  in  the  end  all  ap- 
parently accepted  the  reductions,  except  the  firemen  and 
freight  brakemen,  and  only  a  small  part  of  these,  on  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  at  Martinsburg,  West  Vir- 
ginia, refused  longer  to  work  and  "struck."  On  July  16 
the  only  company  of  West  Virginia  State  Militia  arrived 
at  Martinsburg,  as  the  strikers  at  this  point  had  resorted 
to  violence   and   refused   to  permit   trains   to   be   moved. 


THE    GREAT    RAILROAD     STRIKE  381 

This  small  force  could  not  quell  the  riot.  The  railroad 
company  claimed  it  had  plenty  of  men  to  take  the  places 
of  the  strikers,  and  that  the  engineers  and  freight  conductors 
were  ready  and  willing  to  work  The  next  day  Governor 
Matthews  called  on  the  President  for  aid,  as  he  said  there 
were  no  State  troops  in  West  Virginia  and  there  was  no 
provision  by  law  for  the  organization  of  a  State  militia. 
On  the  17  th  President  Hayes  issued  his  proclamation  ad- 
monishing all  persons  to  abstain  from  domestic  violence  at 
Martinsburg  and  along  the  line  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio 
Railroad,  and  to  disperse  to  their  homes.  On  the  same 
day  United  States  troops  were  started  from  Washington 
to  Martinsburg.  On  the  18th,  under  guard  of  these  troops, 
trains  were  moved  out  of  Martinsburg.  But  immediately 
the  strike  spread  to  the  entire  Baltimore  &  Ohio  system. 

On  the  19th  the  strike  was  inaugurated  at  Pittsburgh 
on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  rapidly  spread  north  and 
east.  On  the  night  of  the  19th  Sheriff  Fife  of  Allegheny 
County  telegraphed  Governor  Hartranft  for  troops.  The 
next  morning,  the  20th,  at  six  o'clock,  the  Pennsylvania 
troops  were  on  duty  in  the  Union  Depot  at  Pittsburgh. 
Meanwhile  the  strike  was  spreading  not  only  in  Pittsburgh 
but  west  across  the  country  to  Toledo,  Detroit,  Chicago, 
St.  Louis,  and  intermediate  points.  The  strikers  and  their 
sympathizers  at  Pittsburgh  far  outnumbered  the  soldiers. 

Saturday  afternoon,  the  21st,  the  Telegraph  reported 
that  there  had  been  a  riot  in  the  outer  yards  at  Pittsburgh 
in  which  one  soldier  and  a  number  of  strikers  and  onlookers 
were  killed;  that  more  troops  had  been  sent  to  the  scene  of 
the  conflict;  that  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh  at  the  28th  Street 
crossing  there  had  been  more  rioting,  more  deaths;  that 
Sheriff  Fife  had  been  shot  dead  and  one  company  of  the 
troops  imprisoned  in  one  of  the  railroad  roundhouses.  That 
night  the  strikers  broke  into  the  armories,  supplied  them- 
selves with  arms,  captured  the  guns  of  the  Hutchinson  Bat- 
tery, and  announced  their  determination  to  massacre  all  the 
25 


382        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

Philadelphia  troops  in  Pittsburgh  and  burn  the  Union  Sta- 
tion of  the  Pennsylvania  Company. 

Meanwhile  there  were  rumors  that  the  strike  would  soon 
be  inaugurated  in  Indianapolis,  and  as  there  were  only 
thirteen  men  at  the  United  States  Arsenal  it  was  feared 
that  the  strikers  and  their  sympathizers  would  capture  the 
arsenal,  arm  themselves,  and  repeat  in  Indianapolis  the 
scenes  of  Pittsburgh.  On  Saturday  afternoon  and  night 
there  had  been  distributed  throughout  the  city  a  notice  in 
large  type,  as  follows: 

Attention,  railroad  men!  Brace  up  and  assert  your  man- 
hood. There  will  be  a  meeting  held  in  the  State  House  Yard 
on  Monday  evening,  July  23,  18  jy,  at  8  o'clock  sharp,  for  the 
purpose  of  sympathizing  and  taking  action  with  our  starving 
brothers  in  the  East  who  are  now  being  trampled  under  the  feet 
of  the  railroad  bondholders.  Everybody  invited  that  believes  in 
equality  and  justice  to  all  mankind.  Let  us  all  have  a  hand 
in  breaking  the  backbone  of  this  railroad  monopoly. — By 
Order  of  the  Committee. 

One  newspaper  contained  a  well-written  article  signed 
''Freight  Brakemen,"  which  stated  that  the  trouble  was  all 
due  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  railroad  officials  who 
received  large  salaries  were  not  stockholders  of  the  rail- 
roads but  were  the  owners  of  the  fast  freight  lines,  and  in 
this  way  were  absorbing  much  of  the  earnings  that  should 
go  to  the  stockholders  and  the  employees  who  operated 
the  roads. 

At  this  time  my  husband  was  holding  court.  As  the 
strike  spread  he  manifested  much  anxiety  as  to  what  might 
develop  at  Indianapolis  and  at  other  points  in  Indiana  on 
roads  operated  by  the  Federal  receivers.  These  receivers 
had  been  appointed  for  the  most  part  by  Judge  Thomas 
Drummond,  the  United  States  Circuit  Judge  for  the  Seventh 
Circuit,  but  he  almost  invariably  asked  my  husband  his 
views  respecting  the  fitness  of  the  men  to  be  appointed. 


THE    GREAT    RAILROAD     STRIKE  383 

These  receivers  were  not  in  arrears  to  the  "Tin  Bucket 
Brigade,"  neither  were  they  proposing  reductions. 

There  were  demands  by  the  men  on  the  railroad  mana- 
gers at  Indianapolis  on  Saturday,  the  21st,  and  on  Sunday, 
the  2 2d.  There  were  conferences.  The  men  were  meeting 
separately,  and  the  managers  were  doing  likewise. 

Telegrams  and  bulletins  were  coming  all  day  long  to  the 
effect  that  the  mob  was  in  undisputed  possession  of  Pitts- 
burgh and  were  putting  their  threats  of  the  evening  before 
into  execution.  They  were  pillaging  and  then  burning 
freight  depots  and  cars.  That  afternoon  the  mob  destroyed 
thousands  of  cars  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  loco- 
motives in  Pittsburgh.  Then  the  bulletin  came  that  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  depot  in  Pittsburgh  had 
been  set  on  fire  by  running  into  it  some  of  the  burning  cars. 
It  cost  Allegheny  County  $15,000,000  to  pay  for  the  prop- 
erty that  was  destroyed  that  day  in  Pittsburgh.  General 
James  H.  Wilson,  the  receiver  of  the' St.  Louis  &  South- 
eastern at  St.  Louis,  was  telegraphing  for  assistance.  From 
General  Pease,  the  receiver  of  the  Indiana,  Blooming- 
ton  &  Western,  it  was  learned  that  his  men  would  not 
strike  as  there  had  been  no  reduction  in  pay  on  his  line  for 
over  a  year;  that  the  men  on  the  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati 
&  LaFayette,  the  other  road  passing  through  Indianapolis 
and  operated  by  a  Federal  receiver,  would  not  strike,  as 
their  pay  had  not  been  reduced;  and  that  V.  T.  Malott, 
then  a  resident  and  citizen  of  Indianapolis  and  the  general 
manager  of  the  Indianapolis,  Peru  &  Chicago  Railroad 
Company,  had  satisfied  the  men  of  his  company  so  that 
there  would  be  no  strike  on  that  line  but  there  would  be 
a  strike  on  the  other  lines. 

The  call  for  the  meeting  Monday  night  and  the  article 
on  the  railroad  management  was  discussed  by  General  Har- 
rison, Colonel  Hendricks,  and  my  husband,  and  it  was  re- 
marked that  as  there  were  men  among  the  railroad  employees 
who  had  been  soldiers,  they  might  not  be  lacking  in  leaders 


384       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

in  the  event  of  violence.  The  strike  was  all  around  us  but 
had  not  yet  reached  Indianapolis  itself. 

Captain  Arnold,  the  commandant  of  the  United  States 
Arsenal  at  Indianapolis,  said  that  Federal  troops  were  so 
busily  engaged  in  the  North  on  strike  duty  or  were  so  scat- 
tered through  the  South,  it  would  probably  be  several  days 
before  any  could  be  sent  to  Indianapolis.  "But,"  said 
Judge  Gresham,  "we  have  plenty  of  material  for  volunteers, 
and  Captain  Arnold  can  supply  us  with  arms,  although  he 
is  short  of  ammunition.  I  have  called  on  the  President  for 
troops,  but  have  not  yet  heard  from  him." 

The  next  morning  the  following  telegram  was  received 
from  the  United  States  Attorney-General;  and  it  will  later 
appear  what  action  Judge  Gresham  took: 

Washington,  D.  C.,  July  24. 
Hon.  W.  Q.  Gresham, 
Indianapolis:  — 
Every  effort  will  be  made  to  sustain  the  marshal,  but  the 
troops  at  the  disposal  of  the  Secretary  of  War  are  very  few  indeed 
and  I  fear  that  it  will  not  be  in  the  power  of  the  government  to 

furnish  them  at  once. 

Charles  Devons, 

A  ttorney -General . 

Meantime,  Captain  Arnold  had  been  authorized  by  the 
War  Department  to  use  his  own  discretion  in  honoring  the 
request  of  the  United  States  Marshal  at  Indianapolis. 

Many  of  the  Southern  newspapers  rather  sneered  at  a 
situation  that  demanded  Federal  troops  in  the  Northern 
cities  and  States.  They  had  no  strikes  in  the  South,  they 
said. 

Monday,  July  23,  at  two  o'clock,  the  firemen  and  brake- 
men  of  the  Vandalia  Line,  failing  to  come  to  an  adjustment 
with  Superintendent  Staples,  quit  work.  They  soon  in- 
duced the  firemen  on  the  Indianapolis  &  St.  Louis  Line  to 
join  them.  A  committee  appeared  at  the  Union  Depot 
and  attempted   to  induce   a  fireman  on  the  engine   of  a 


THE    GREAT     RAILROAD     STRIKE  385 

passenger  train  just  leaving  for  St.  Louis  to  quit  his  engine, 
but  failed.  Warren  N.  Sayer,  the  grand  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Firemen,  it 
was  said  headed  this  committee,  but  this  Sayer  denied 
when  on  trial  later  for  contempt  of  court  in  interfering  with 
the  operation  of  the  trains  of  the  receivers. 

That  night,  after  my  husband  had  adjourned  court,  he 
had  a  conference  of  lawyers,  all  of  whom  had  seen  service 
in  the  army,  and  the  powers  and  duty  of  the  Federal  judge 
were  very  carefully  canvassed  in  the  premises.  One  of  his 
expressions  was,  "I  know  what  to  do."  In  this  conference 
were  General  Spooner,  the  United  States  Marshal,  Gener- 
al Benjamin  Harrison,  ex-Governor  Conrad  Baker,  and 
Colonel  A.  W.  Hendricks,  the  last  two  being  law  part- 
ners of  Thomas  A.  Hendricks.  Governor  Baker  called 
that  evening  and  was  shown  the  following  telegram  from 
General  J.  H.  Wilson,  receiver  of  the  St.  Louis  &  South- 
eastern Railroad  Company,  the  St.  Louis,  Evansville  & 
Nashville  Line: 

The  running  of  freight  trains  east  of  St.  Louis  interrupted 
by  organized  strikers  from  other  roads.  Our  employees  intim- 
idated and  constrained  to  cease  work.  Property  as  yet  free  from 
violence,  but  situation  serious  and  may  be  followed  by  riotous 
outbreak  at  an}'  moment  by  vicious  element  outside  of  strikers. 
Local  authorities  unable  or  unwilling  to  protect  our  men  who  have 
made  no  complaint  and  are  willing  to  work  if  permitted.  Monthly 
payments  have  been  promptly  made  at  rates  above  the  average 
for  work  of  like  classes  in  other  avocations ;  no  reductions  except 
as  to  engineers  have  been  made  since  October  last.  I  have  not 
been  asked  to  make  concessions  and  am  in  the  dark  as  to  what 
is  expected  of  me  by  the  mob.  Meanwhile,  I  have  seen  many 
of  my  men  and  advised  them  to  go  to  their  homes  and  remain 
there  until  the  storm  blows  over.  Have  ordered  all  freight  trains 
to  turn  back  from  Belleville,  to  sidetrack  freight  trains  if  strike 
spreads,  and  to  suspend  all  operations  until  assured  of  adequate 
protection.  Will  do  all  in  my  power  to  keep  peace  and  protect 
property  in  my  hands,  but  the  United  States  marshal  with  force 


386         LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

of  Federal  troops  will  be  necessary  to  meet  emergency.  Your 
instructions  will  be  observed,  but  I  am  unalterably  opposed  to 
any  concession,  direct  or  indirect,  to  organized  violence.  The 
other  railroad  managers  here  concur  in  this  program;  Major 
Wilson  also. 

Colonel  Baker  and  my  husband  agreed  it  would  not 
do  to  suspend  operations;  that  if  the  receivers'  employees 
would  work,  the  movement  of  the  trains  should  not  be  pre- 
vented by  mobs,  and  General  Wilson  was  so  advised.  It 
was  agreed  also  that  the  next  day  the  volunteer  companies 
should  be  organized,  as  my  husband  said  he  had  not  heard 
from  the  President  in  response  to  his  call  for  troops. 

The  Monday  evening  meeting  in  the  State  House  yards 
was  a  violent  one.  When  it  broke  up,  the  strikers  and  their 
sympathizers  took  possession  of  the  Union  Depot  and  made 
it  their  headquarters.  Among  trains  that  were  to  depart 
at  ii  p.  m.  was  an  Indiana,  Blbomington  &  Western  train 
for  Peoria,  Illinois.  The  strikers  said  the  engine  and  mail 
car  might  go  but  not  the  baggage,  passenger,  and  sleeping 
cars.  These  they  cut  off,  and  then  the  receiver  abandoned 
the  train.  The  same  course  was  pursued  with  reference  to 
the  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati  &  LaFayette  train,  which 
reached  Indianapolis  from  Cincinnati  at  midnight  to  go 
through  to  LaFayette.  All  other  roads  were  likewise  tied 
up.  Many  of  the  strikers  were  appointed  special  police- 
men by  the  mayor. 

On  the  morning  of  the  24th,  before  opening  court,  there 
was  a  conference  in  chambers.  Of  this  conference  Charles 
W.  Smith  of  the  Indianapolis  bar  said,  years  afterwards: 

In  the  early  part  of  the  day  —  July  24,  1877 — a  messenger 
from  Judge  Gresham's  chambers  came  to  my  office  and  said  that 
the  judge  desired  a  conference  with  several  gentlemen  at  once, 
and  requested  me  to  attend  if  possible. 

The  judge  said  to  those  present:  'The  strike  is  assuming 
dangerous  proportions;  the  Indianapolis,  Bloomington  &  Western 
Railroad  Company  is  in  the  hands  of  a  receiver  appointed  by  the 


THE    GREAT    RAILROAD    STRIKE  387 

United  States  Circuit  Court.  All  of  you  gentlemen  have  seen 
service  in  the  Civil  War.  If  you  are  willing  to  act,  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  force  we  can  enroll,  and  support  me,  I  can  by  reason 
of  the  power  I  have  as  a  Federal  judge  appoint  you  special  United 
States  marshals  and  then  move  the  Indianapolis,  Bloomington  & 
Western  trains.  This  will  break  the  strike  and  thus  prevent 
bloodshed  and  destruction  of  property.'  All  present  expressed 
their  willingness  to  support  the  court. 

The  judge  then  said  that  it  was  time  for  court  to  convene, 
but  that  he  was  sending  out  calls  to  prominent  citizens  for  a  meet- 
ing in  the  courtroom  immediately  after  the  noon  adjournment 
of  court,  and  requested  those  present  to  attend  that  meeting. 

Before  going  on  the  bench  Judge  Gresham  sent  the  fol- 
lowing telegram  to  Circuit  Judge  Thomas  Drummond  at 
Chicago : 

Strikers  are  in  possession  of  Union  Depot  and  will  not  allow 
freight  or  passenger  trains  of  the  Indiana,  Bloomington  &  Western 
and  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati  &  LaFayette,  or  any  other  roads 
to  go  out.  Have  I  authority  to  order  marshal  to  assist  the 
receivers  and  for  that  purpose  accept  services  of  volunteer  mili- 
tary companies?  Am  I  limited  simply  to  having  marshal  arrest 
parties  named  in  writ?  I  feel  like  ordering  the  marshal  to  clear 
the  tracks,  and  for  that  purpose  accept  proffered  aid  without 
issuing  warrants.  I  understand  that  Governor  Williams  and 
Mayor  Cavin  have  determined  to  do  nothing  to  protect  or  defend 
the  railroads. 

At  10:30  came  the  answer: 

Judge  W.  Q.  Gresham: — 

Have  no  doubt  of  your  right  to  order  marshal  to  protect  all 
property  in  hands  of  our  receivers,  and  have  no  doubt  of  marshal's 
right  to  call  for  necessary  assistance.  I  gave  orders  to  marshal 
of  Southern  District  (Illinois)  yesterday  to  have  all  men  who 
interfere  identified  so  far  as  possible  for  punishment  hereafter. 

Thomas  Drummond. 

On  the  adjournment  of  court  at  noon,  pursuant  to  the 
oral  notice,  a  mass  meeting  was  held  in  the  Federal  court, 


388       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Captain  Smith  was  there.  Judge  Gresham  in  calling  the 
meeting  to  order  said  that  the  community  was  in  possession 
of  the  mob;  that  the  governor,  the  mayor  and  the  sheriff, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  act,,  were  supine;  life  and  property 
were  in  danger;  that  society  was  disintegrating,  if  it  had  not 
dissolved.  The  only  method  to  pursue  was  to  organize  a 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  and  take  charge,  and  to  enroll 
a  sufficient  force  of  volunteers  to  command  the  situation. 
They  had  plenty  of  officers,  and  many  more  who  had  served 
in  the  ranks  would  enlist.  In  a  short  space  of  time  there 
would  be  all  the  troops  necessary  to  control  the  situation, 
and  that  he  was  ready  to  sign  his  name  as  the  first  volunteer. 

W.  P.  Fishback  followed  and  spoke  of  having  witnessed 
the  riot  in  Chicago  the  day  before  and  of  the  great  relief 
it  was  when  he  saw  two  companies  of  regulars  marching 
down  the  street.  But  Mr.  Fishback  was  apprehensive  that 
a  force  could  not  be  organized  quickly  enough  in  Indianapo- 
lis to  meet  the  situation. 

General  George  H.  Chapman,  the  receiver  of  the  La- 
Fayette,  Muncie  &  Bloomington  Railroad  Company,  a 
member  of  the  bar  and  the  gallant  commander  of  a  cavalry 
brigade  at  Gettysburg,  was  for  the  use  of  force  in  meeting 
the  situation.  Said  General  Chapman:  ''The  basis  of  all 
government  is  an  implied  agreement  that  the  people  shall 
pay  taxes  to  perform  governmental  functions  and  render 
all  personal  allegiance  and  service  necessary  to  that  end. 
In  consideration  thereof,  the  State  pledges  itself  to  main- 
tain peace  and  order  and  protect  the  citizens  in  their  per- 
sonal and  property  rights." 

Then,  Captain  Smith  says,  "Judge  Gresham  called  upon 
General  Harrison  as  to  his  judgment.  General  Harrison 
was  emphatic  in  the  statement  that  order  must  be  main- 
tained, and  all  attempts  at  interference  with  the  operation 
of  the  railroads  in  violation  of  law  ought  to  be  suppressed." 
Eut  he  further  stated  that  he  thought  it  ought  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  there  were  two  sides  to  the  question;  that 


THE    GREAT    RAILROAD    STRIKE  389 

doubtless  the  railroad  employees  had  just  grievances,  and 
that  no  hasty  action  should  be  taken. 

William  H.  English  and  other  large  property  holders 
were  present  at  the  meeting.  Mr.  English  was  the  spokes- 
man for  this  class.  He  had  been  that  morning  in  confer- 
ence with  Mayor  Cavin  and  Governor  Williams;  he  depre- 
cated the  purpose  to  organize  troops;  he  said  that  it  would 
inflame  the  strikers,  and  that  while  there  were  many  men 
present  who  had  served  as  generals  and  colonels  and  majors 
and  captains  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  there  were 
not  many  who  had  served  in  the  ranks;  that  they  would 
not  be  able  to  get  a  full  complement  of  men;  that  there 
might  be  much  valuable  property  destroyed,  and  it  would 
be  better  not  to  attempt  to  organize. 

General  Chapman  at  this  point  broke  in  with  the  ques- 
tion: "Mr.  English,  you  are  thinking  of  your  property, 
are  you?"  To  which  Mr.  English  replied,  "I  am  think- 
ing about  rrry  own  property.  I  am  thinking  about  the 
property  of  other  citizens  of  the  city  of  Indianapolis,  and  I 
am  also  thinking  of  the  possibility  that  many  persons  might 
be  killed  or  hurt  before  order  is  restored."  Again  General 
Chapman  broke  in:  "Mr.  English,  you  are  a  coward!" 
Mr.  English  then  concluded  his  speech,  deprecating  hasty 
action. 

Colonel  Ritter  said :  "I  think  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to 
organize  in  an  effective  way  to  protect  the  public  from  the 
mob.  When  we  have  done  that,  then  we  will  be  in  shape 
to  talk.  Ten  thousand  men  marching  down  the  street  with 
hands  in  empty  pockets  would  accomplish  nothing  with  an 
excited  and  violent  mob.  I  move  that  we  organize  a  mili- 
tary company,  select  officers,  ask  for  arms  and  ammunition 
from  the  United  States,  and  then  try  to  persuade  these  wild 
men  to  disperse;  if  they  refuse,  and  resort  to  destruction  of 
property,  our  organization  will  be  ready  for  such  duty  as 
may  be  necessary."  Colonel  Ritter,  who  was  a  Prohibi- 
tionist   in   politics,    afterwards    said,    "You   always   knew 


39Q       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

where  Judge  Gresham  stood.  I  made  my  motion  to  end 
the  debate." 

On  the  adoption  of  Colonel  Ritter's  motion  the  meeting 
proceeded  to  effect  a  military  organization.  The  enroll- 
ment of  troops  began,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  after  the 
adjournment  of  court  (before  2  o'clock)  the  first  com- 
pany had  two  hundred  members,  two-thirds  of  whom  had 
served  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  It  was  divided 
into  two  companies,  General  Harrison  taking  the  command 
of  one,  with  Colonel  Ritter  his  first  lieutenant ;  and  General 
Chapman  of  the  other,  with  Captain  C.  W.  Smith  his  first 
lieutenant.  General  Chapman  went  on  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,  and  Captain  Smith  managed  his  company, 
as  well  as  the  enrollment  and  immediate  organization  of  the 
two  companies,  right  in  the  courtroom. 

The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  composed  of 
T.  A.  Morris,  Benjamin  Harrison,  John  Love,  Joseph  E. 
MacDonald,  Conrad  Baker,  George  H.  Chapman,  and  A.  W. 
Hendricks.  Joseph  E.  MacDonald  was  the  only  member  of 
the  committee  who  was  without  practical  experience  in  mili- 
tary affairs.  My  husband  agreed  that  he  would  take  no 
action  as  a  Federal  judge  in  an  administrative  capacity  that 
did  not  first  have  the  approval  of  this  committee. 

By  the  time  the  meeting  adjourned,  Captain  Arnold 
was  at  the  rear  of  the  post-office  building,  with  wagons 
loaded  with  muskets  and  enough  ammunition  to  arm  the 
companies  of  Generals  Harrison  and  Chapman.  Captain 
Arnold  was  in  one  of  his  old  faded  citizen's  suits  of  clothes, 
and  his  wagons  were  covered  with  tarpaulins,  so  that  there 
was  nothing  to  disclose  what  he  was  conveying  from  the 
Arsenal  to  the  Federal  buildings,  but  it  was  remarked  that 
he  could  not  conceal  his  decided  military  bearing. 

In  all,  nine  companies  were  ultimately  organized,  com- 
manded by  men  who  had  seen  service  during  the  War  of 
the  Rebellion.  These,  supplemented  by  the  Indianapolis 
Light  Infantry  and  the  Montgomery  Guards  of  Crawfords- 


THE    GREAT     RAILROAD     STRIKE  391 

ville,  commanded  by  General  Lew  Wallace,  made  ample 
force.  General  Daniel  Macauley  was  placed  in  command 
of  all,  with  headquarters  in  the  Federal  building,  which  was 
also  the  headquarters  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety. 
After  the  meeting  at  the  Federal  courtroom  adjourned, 
there  was  a  meeting  at  the  office  of  the  Governor  of  Indiana, 
which  was  attended  by  Governor  Williams,  Mayor  Cavin, 
Judge  Gresham,  Senator  MacDonald,  General  John  Love, 
Colonel  B.  C.  Shaw,  ex-Governor  Conrad  Baker,  Captain 
D.  W.  Wiles,  Adjutant-General  Russ,  and  others.  Mean- 
while the  soldier  element  among  the  railroad  men  had  been 
quietly  advised  of  the  companies  that  had  been  organized. 
Considerate  then  as  always  of  State  and  local  authorities, 
Judge  Gresham  insisted  before  action  was  taken  that  the 
situation  be  put  up  to  Governor  Williams  and  Mayor 
Cavin.  Though  all  agreed  there  was  danger  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  property,  neither  the  Governor  nor  the  Mayor  could  be 
induced  to  take  any  action.  The  Mayor  claimed  the  strik- 
ing railroad  men  would  not  resort  to  violence;  that  he  had 
appointed  many  of  them  special  policemen,  and  that  they 
could  and  would  suppress  the  vicious  element  which  might 
appear.  The  Governor  claimed  he  could  not  call  out  any 
State  troops  unless  a  request  for  them  was  made  by  the 
Mayor,  while  the  adjutant-general  said  there  were  not 
enough  State  troops  to  command  the  situation  if  called  out. 
Thereupon  the  Governor  and  the  Mayor  were  informed 
that  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  had  organized  two 
companies  of  veterans  who  would  support  the  United  States 
marshal  in  moving  the  trains  operated  by  the  receivers  and 
clear  all  the  tracks  if  desired.  Both  the  Governor  and  the 
Mayor  deprecated  such  action,  as  sure  to  lead  to  violence. 
Both,  especially  Mayor  Cavin,  deprecated  sending  General 
Spooner  alone,  in  his  official  capacity,  to  the  strikers'  head- 
quarters at  the  Union  Depot  to  notify  them  that  they  were 
in  contempt  of  court,  that  he  had  come  to  move  the  receivers' 
trains,  and  to  do  so  would  use  all  the  force  necessary.     The 


392       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

reason  Mayor  Cavin  gave  was  that  such  action  would  most 
likely  result  in  bodily  harm  to  General  Spooner.  In  this 
state  of  affairs  the  meeting  adjourned.  The  Mayor  then 
issued  a  call  for  a  public  meeting  to  be  held  that  evening  at 
8  o'clock  at  the  front  of  the  courthouse,  on  Washington 
Street.  There  was  a  large  gathering,  at  which  it  was  de- 
cided there  should  be  organized  a  committee  of  mediation, 
to  endeavor  to  bring  about  a  settlement  between  the  em- 
ployees and  the  railroads.  Mayor  Cavin,  Senator  MacDon- 
ald,  ex-Governor  Baker,  General  Benjamin  Harrison,  Albert 
G.  Porter,  and  others  were  on  this  committee.  It  had  a 
number  of  conferences  with  the  committee  representing  the 
strikers,  and  it  was  this  committee  that  subsequently  took 
the  testimony  as  to  wages  that  I  have  heretofore  quoted. 
Upon  the  adjournment  of  the  meeting  in  the  Governor's 
office,  it  was  still  early  in  the  afternoon.  There  was  a 
meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  in  the  chambers 
of  the  District  Judge  in  the  post-office  building.  The 
question  of  the  power  of  the  Federal  courts  was  very 
carefully  considered,  as  was  the  attitude  of  the  Governor, 
and  of  the  Mayor.  The  following  telegram  from  C.  M. 
Osborne,  an  eminent  attorney  of  Rock  Island,  received 
attention : 

I  learn  that  strikers  on  other  roads  at  Terre  Haute  refuse 
to  let  trains  run  on  Logansport,  Crawfordsville  &  Southwestern 
Railway.  I  have  advised  the  receiver,  subject  to  your  approval, 
to  discharge  all  men  not  necessary  to  take  charge  of  property, 
and  explain  to  them  that  he  would  have  no  money  to  pay  them 
if  he  keeps  them,  and  will  re-employ  when  he  can  make  earnings. 
Please  advise  him  direct  and  protect  the  property. 

My  husband  told  the  committee  he  would  order  Clay- 
brook,  the  receiver  of  Mr.  Osborne's  road  at  Terre  Haute, 
to  discharge  no  men,  but  on  the  contrary  to  hold  his  trains 
in  readiness  to  move  when  he  received  the  necessary  assist- 
ance; and  advise  the  strike  leaders  they  were  in  contempt 


THE     GREAT    RAILROAD    STRIKE  393 

of  the  Federal  courts  and  would  be  punished  if  they  con- 
tinued to  interfere.  The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  said 
it  would  aid  the  marshal  in  the  enforcement  of  any  order 
he  might  receive.  Immediately  General  Spooner  was  or- 
dered to  go  alone  to  the  depot  and  notify  the  strikers  who 
he  was,  that  they  were  in  contempt  of  court,  and  that  he 
had  come  to  move  the  trains  of  the  receivers,  using  all  neces- 
sary force.  Although  Mayor  Cavin  came  to  my  husband 
and  urged  him  not  to  send  the  marshal  to  the  depot  to  move 
the  trains  of  the  receivers,  as  it  would  lead  to  violence, 
General  Spooner  went  alone.  Upon  making  known  his 
position  and  instructions,  the  strike  leaders  promptly  said 
they  would  no  longer  interfere  with  the  roads  operated  by 
the  receivers,  and  in  thirty  minutes  one  of  the  trains,  that 
had  been  held  for  fifteen  hours,  was  on  its  way  to  Lafayette. 

But  the  embargo  was  kept  up  on  the  other  roads ;  and  as 
there  was  practically  no  ammunition  at  the  Arsenal,  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  cautious  about  attempting 
to  move  until  ammunition  was  received  from  Chicago. 
In  the  evening,  after  consulting  with  Captain  Arnold,  Gen- 
eral Harrison's  company  was  moved  to  the  Arsenal  to  pro- 
tect it,  and  as  a  suitable  place  from  which  to  operate  in  case 
of  emergency;  while  General  Chapman's  company  remained 
at  the  post-office  building,  camping  in  the  courtroom  and 
the  various  offices. 

On  the  25th  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  awaiting 
the  arrival  of  ammunition  from  Chicago,  and  my  husband 
was  awaiting  the  coming  of  the  Federal  troops  that  had 
been  promised.  Meanwhile  different  methods  of  procedure 
were  canvassed.  The  Governor  and  the  Mayor  were  still 
holding  off,  while  Senator  MacDonald  was  importuning  the 
Governor  to  act.  It  was  a  situation  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
executive  arm  of  the  government,  which  could  act,  as  those 
men  thought,  only  through  the  army  and  the  police.  Writs 
of  assistance  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts 
were  canvassed,  but  the  thought  of  a  bill  in  equity  of  the 


394       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

United  States  government  against  the  strikers  was  not  con- 
sidered the  way  to  meet  the  situation. 

On  July  26,  Judge  Gresham  received  telegrams  and 
letters,  which,  with  his  answers,  follow: 

A  mob  last  night  at  Evansville  tried  to  prevent  the  orderly 
departure  of  my  trains.  No  railroad  employees  took  part.  I 
shall  prepare  affidavits.  Meanwhile  can't  you  do  as  much  for 
me  as  you  have  done  for  the  I.  B.  W? 

J.  H.  Wilson,  Receiver. 

General  J.  H.  Wilson,  Receiver,  July  26.  1877. 

St.  Louis:  — 
Ask   the  mayor  of  Evansville   for  all  necessary  protection. 

W.  Q.  Gresham. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  July  26. 
To  W.  Q.  Gresham: 

Evansville  authorities  have  already  been  called  upon  to 
arrest  lawless  persons,  but  decline  for  fear  of  adding  to  the  excite- 
ment. If  there  is  a  man  of  courage  there,  have  him  appointed 
special  deputy  marshal.  I  suggest  Denby.  How  are  you  mak- 
ing it  at  Indianapolis? 

J.  H.  Wilson. 

Indianapolis,  July  26,  1877. 
To  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Evansville: 

General  J.  H.  Wilson,  receiver  of  the  St.  Louis  &  South- 
eastern Railroad,  telegraphs  that  he  is  obstructed  at  Evansville 
in  the  operation  of  his  road.-  Will  you  aid  and  protect  him  as 
receiver  in  the  management  of  the  road,  and  save  me  the  necessity 
of  sending  the  marshal  with  a  posse  for  that  purpose? 

W.  Q.  Gresham,  Judge,  United  States  Court. 

Evansville,  July  27,   1877. 
To  Hon.  W.  Q.  Gresham, 
United  States  Judge, 
Indianapolis: — 
While  you  are  asking  the  people  of  Evansville  to  protect  the 
St.  Louis  &  Southeastern  Road,  General  Wilson,  the  receiver, 


THE.  GREAT     RAILROAD     STRIKE  395 

has  suppressed  our  papers  by  stopping  their  sale  on  his  trains. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  strikes  occur  on  roads  so  managed. 

F.  M.  Thayer,  Editor  "Journal." 

Indianapolis,  July  27,   1877. 
To  F.  M.  Thayer 
Evansville: — 
You  will  learn  very  soon  that  there  is  power  enough  in  this 
government  to  run  that  road  whether  Evansville  supports  Gen- 
eral Wilson  or  not.     It  would  have  been  more  respectful  in  your 
mayor  to  have  answered  my  dispatch  than  to  inspire  the  sending 
of  such  a  telegram  as  yours.     Under  the  circumstances,  General 
Wilson  may  properly  exercise  his  discretion  in  excluding  from  his 
trains  such  papers  as  he  may  think  tend  to  ferment  the  present 
disturbance.     So  far  as  it  is  known  to  the  court,  General  Wilson's 
conduct  is  approved. 

W.  Q.  Gresham. 

Evansville,  July  27. 
Hon.  W.  Q.  Gresham, 
Indianapolis: — 
Will  reply  to  your  telegram  by  letter.     Am  not  responsible 
for  the  mayor,  and  have  had  no  communication  with  him. 

F.  M.  Thayer. 

Evansville,  July  27,  1877. 
Hon.  W.  Q.  Gresham, 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Sir: — If  the  wording  of  my  dispatch  this  morning  gave  offense 
I  ask  pardon,  for  I  had  no  intention  of  the  kind.  In  intimating, 
however,  that  Mayor  Kleiner  inspired  the  dispatch,  I  am  sure 
you  administered  punishment  disproportionate  to  the  offense. 
To  my  mind  it  is  a  clear  case  wherein  you  failed  to  temper  justice 
with  mercy.  I  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  Mayor  Kleiner. 
Have  not  spoken  to  him  for  weeks. 

But  to  the  other  point:  This  morning,  after  all  our  orders 
for  papers  on  the  Southeastern  road  had  been  filled,  and  without 
warning  or  provocation  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  General  Wilson  for- 
bade their  coming  on  the  train.     We  are  still  without  explanation 


396       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

for  this  strange  conduct.  Evansville,  I  am  sure,  is  not  popular 
with  General  Wilson,  but  I  cannot  imagine  what  the  Journal  has 
done  to  excite  his  ire.  If  it  has  been  decided  to  stop  the  sale  of 
newspapers  on  all  roads  run  by  government  receivers  we  will 
submit  without  complaint.  If  our  paper  has  done  anything  to 
excite  the  mob  against  the  Southeastern  or  any  other  road,  I  am 
not  aware  of  it.  So  far  from  this,  we  never  have  taken  sides 
against  the  road  in  any  of  its  controversies  or  litigation  with  our 
people.  I  only  ask  to  have  our  paper  treated  precisely  as  govern- 
ment receivers  are  treating  other  papers  throughout  the  country, 
unless  it  can  be  shown  we  are,  exceptionally,  trying  to  inflame  the 
mob  spirit.  I  am  sure  on  reflection  that  you  will  concede  this  is 
not  asking  too  much.  Railroad  employees  have  acted  badly  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  but  is  n't  it  possible  that  railroad 
managers  now  and  then  commit  a  mistake  ?  We  well  understand 
that  General  Wilson  has  the  power  to  exclude  our  paper  from  his 
trains  except  as  it  goes  through  the  mail,  and  we  will  have  to  sub- 
mit, but  I  am  sure  such  petty  tyranny  will  not  insure  the  advan- 
tage of  the  road  in  the  long  run. 

Respectfully, 

F.  M.  Thayer. 

Evansville,  Ind.,  July  27. 
To  Judge  W.  Q.  Gresham: 

On  receipt  of  your  request,  Mayor  Kleiner  sent  detail  of 
police  here  yesterday  and  dispersed  the  few  men  who  claim  to 
be  strikers.  Work  has  been  done  since  with  no  interference  and 
I  think  the  men  have  left  town.     Everything  tranquil  as  could 

be  desired. 

O.  M.  Shepard,  Supt.  5.  E.  Ry. 

Indianapolis,  July  28,  1877. 
F.  M.  Thayer,  Esq., 

Evansville,  Ind. 
Dear  Sir: — 

Your  note  of  the  27th  is  just  received.  I  regret  the  unpleas- 
ant complication.  The  dispatch  I  sent  Mayor  Kleiner  was 
cautiously  expressed  and  was  due  to  him  as  an  official.  I  think 
he  owed  me  an  answer,  and,  having  waited  twenty-four  hours, 


THE    GREAT     RAILROAD    STRIKE  397 

all  I  heard  was  by  means  of  your  dispatch.  I  will  ask  you  if 
from  the  tenor  of  this  dispatch  I  had  not  the  right  to  assume 
that  the  mayor  had  advised  you  of  its  contents?  And  was  it 
not,  to  say  the  least,  considering  the  embarrassment  of  the 
occasion,  somewhat  unreasonable  that  you  should  use  language 
so  very  like  a  sneer  at  the  exercise  of  the  authority  of  the 
courts  ? 

Now  I  wish  to  express  freely  my  conviction  that  the  mayor 
of  Evansville  has  done  his  duty,  and  my  belief  that  the  citizens 
of  Evansville  sustained  him  in  this  performance.  I  am  sorry 
that  any  unfriendly  expression  toward  the  mayor  or  you  were 
employed  in  my  dispatch. 

As  to  the  papers,  of  course  General  Wilson,  unless  there 
were  urgent  reasons,  ought  not  to  reject  your  papers  or  any  other 
newspapers  from  his  trains.  I  have  been  in  communication  with 
him  and  he  telegraphs  me  that  he  had  instructed  the  superintend- 
ent to  exclude  newsboys  and  newspapers  from  the  trains  as  cir- 
culating intelligence  that  would  tend  to  spread  the  strike.  The 
order  was  not  directed  at  your  paper  more  than  at  any  other,  and 
therefore  conveys  no  imputation  on  the  Journal.  As  none  was 
deserved  I  am  glad  none  was  made.  I  must  also  say  that  Qeneral 
Wilson  is  incapable  of  any  unfriendly  feeling  toward  the  city  of 
Evansville  or  of  any  act  of  injustice  toward  you,  and  that  he 
had  no  thought  or  desire  but  to  operate  his  road  for  the  public 
benefit.  I  think  you  will  find  no  further  hindrance  in  your  busi- 
ness on  this  account. 

As  an  act  of  justice  to  Mayor  Kleiner  and  your  paper  you 
may  feel  free  to  publish  this  letter  if  you  think  best. 

Very  respectfully, 

W.  Q.  Gresham. 

Mr.  Thayer  subsequently  published  the  entire  corres- 
pondence. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  27th  the  Federal  troops,  with 
General  Morrow  in  command,  arrived  from  the  South. 
There  were  several  hundred  of  them.  Contemporaneously 
with  their  arrival  came  the  following  telegram  from  Attor- 
ney-General Devons: 
26 


398       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Washington,  D.  C,  July  27. 
To  Judge  Gresham,  U.  S.  Judge: 

My  object  was  to  have  the  writ  of  assistance  executed  first. 
If  you  think  the  time  has  arrived  for  the  arrest  of  those  who  have 
interfered  to  prevent  the  execution,  let  the  marshal  act  at  once. 
There  are  no  other  strikers,  I  suppose,  subject  to  United  States 
process. 

Chas.  Devons,  Attorney-General. 

That  afternoon  Warren  N.  Sayer,  and  others  who  had 
interfered  with  the  receivers'  trains,  were  arrested  by  United 
States  marshals,  although  the  Mayor  protested  against 
the  act.  Governor  Williams  was  finally  prevailed  on  to 
telegraph  the  President  for  Federal  troops,  but  it  was  given 
out  at  the  White  House  that  his  request  was  so  worded 
that  it  could  not  be  recognized.  Still  later  in  the  day  the 
Governor  received  the  troops  of  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  into  the  service  of  the  State,  with  General  Daniel 
Macauley,  their  commander,  as  a  brigadier-general.  After 
the  trouble  was  all  over,  the  city  council  of  Indianapolis 
made  an  appropriation  and  reimbursed  the  State  for  the  pay 
of  these  troops. 

The  arrival  of  the  Federal  troops,  the  arrest  of  Sayer  and 
of  his  associates,  and  the  Governor's  action  in  taking  the 
volunteer  companies  into  the  service  of  the  State,  ended 
the  blockade  at  Indianapolis,  but  the  strikers  continued  in 
possession  of  Terre  Haute  and  Vincennes,  and  refused  to 
allow  the  operation  of  the  roads  of  the  receivers  at  these 
points.  Vincennes  was  a  central  point  between  St.  Louis 
and  Cincinnati  on  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Road. 

On  Saturday,  July  28,  General  Spooner  was  sent  with 
fifty  men  of  the  Third  United  States  Infantry  and  four 
officers  to  open  the  Logansport,  Crawfordsville  &  South- 
western Road  at  Terre  Haute  and  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi 
Road  at  Vincennes,  and  to  arrest  those  at  Vincennes  and 
Terre  Haute  who  had  obstructed  the  roads.  The  trains 
of   the   Logansport,    Crawfordsville  &  Southwestern  were 


THE    GREAT    RAILROAD    STRIKE  399 

released  by  the  strikers  at  the  Union  Depot  at  Terre  Haute 
when  they  got  word  that  General  Spooner  and  the  troops 
would  soon  arrive  at  Terre  Haute. 

On  the  morning  of  the  29th  General  Spooner  reported 
that  the  strikers  fled  as  he  approached  Vincennes,  and  that 
he  had  declined  to  remain  at  Terre  Haute  longer  than  two 
hours  although  the  citizens  there  apprehended  serious 
trouble.  At  the  same  time  there  came  the  following  tele- 
gram from  W.  R.  McKeen,  president  of  the  Vandalia  Line- 
Engineers  refuse  to  run  our  trains.  Strikers  are  turbulent 
and  men  who  desire  to  work  intimidated.  I  trust  you  will  let 
the  United  States  soldiers  remain  here  a  few  days.  Please 
answer. 

General  Ben.  Spooner, 
U.  S.  Marshal,  Vincennes,  Ind. 
You  can  appoint  a  deputy  at  Terre  Haute  to  take  charge 
of  your  posse.  The  posse  will  remain  at  Terre  Haute  and  aid 
Claybrook  if  necessary.  The  presence  of  the  troops  at  Terre 
Haute  will  have  a  good  moral  effect  and  they  will  be  convenient 
for  use  at  Vincennes  or  Evansville.  If  the  Vandalia  strikers 
think  the  troops  are  to  operate  against  them  you  will  not  be 
responsible  for  their  mistake.  Appoint  as  few  deputies  at  Vin- 
cennes as  possible. 

Make  provision  for  the  troops  before  you  leave  them. 

W.  Q.  Gresham. 

Dear  General:1 

Please  copy  this  and  get  it  off  quick. 

W.  Q.  G. 

Upon  receipt  of  this  telegram  General  Spooner  returned 
to  Terre  Haute.  By  the  time  he  and  the  fifty  Federal  sol- 
diers reached  Terre  Haute  the  depot  was  in  the  possession 
of  four  thousand  men.     There  stood  the  United  States  mail 

1  General  Daniel  Macauley,  then  in  the  service  of  the  State.  His  headquarters  con- 
tinued in  the  Federal  building. 


400       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

trains  from  St.  Louis  to  New  York  ''coupled  up"  to  Van- 
dalia  engines  manned  by  master  mechanics  in  the  place  of 
engineers.  General  Spooner  escorted  the  first  of  these  mail 
trains,  No.  20,  out  of  the  Terre  Haute  depot  and  out  of 
town,  under  orders  to  shoot  the  first  man  who  attempted 
to  interfere.  Then  the  engineers  and  Mr.  McKeen,  the 
president  of  the  Vandalia  Company,  promptly  adjusted 
their  differences  and  the  strike  was  ended  at  Terre  Haute, 
so  far  as  the  Federal  courts  were  concerned.  That  night 
General  Spooner  and  the  troops  returned  to  Indianapolis. 
He  reported  that  there  were  cars  in  No.  20  with  the  words 
"Fast  United  States  Mail"  printed  on  the  sides  and  sacks 
of  mail  inside.  He  considered  it  his  duty,  in  view  of  Presi- 
dent Hayes'  proclamation,  the  Judge's  telegrams,  his  author- 
ity as  United  States  Marshal,  and  his  practical  experi- 
ence as  a  man,  to  move  that  mail  train  and  report  results. 
The  legal  lights  at  Indianapolis,  including  the  Judge,  said 
he  did  right.  In  legal  ability  Benjamin  Spooner  was  not 
inferior  to  his  brother  Philip,  who  ranked  as  one  of  the  best 
legal  minds  the  Wisconsin  bar  produced;  nor  to  his  nephew, 
John  C.  Spooner,  afterwards  United  States  Senator  from 
that  State,  and  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the  nation. 
Finally,  at  Governor  Williams's  instance,  Federal  troops 
were  sent  to  Fort  Wayne. 

On  the  29th  Judge  Gresham  telegraphed  the  attorney- 
general  and  Judge  Drummond  that  the  roads  in  Indiana 
were  all  open,  and  that  the  authorities  had  arrested  some  of 
the  strikers  and  were  after  a  few  more.  The  attorney- 
general  was  asked  by  telegraph  how  he  thought  the  prisoners 
were  to  be  treated,  and  Judge  Drummond  as  to  whether  or 
not  they  were  to  be  admitted  to  bail;  if  so,  in  what  amount. 
' '  If  the  evidence  sustained  the  charge  of  contempt,  can  you 
give  some  general  idea  as  to  what  would  be  adequate 
punishment  ? ' ' 

That  night  the  following  telegram  was  received  from  the 
attorney-general : 


THE    GREAT    RAILROAD    STRIKE  401 

The  prisoners  in  question  are  prisoners  of  civil  authority 
and  the  expense  of  keeping  them  a  proper  charge  on  the  judiciary- 
fund.  The  marshal  must  take  care  of  and  feed  them  until  their 
cases  can  be  disposed  of,  which  I  suppose  will  be  promptly.  If 
any  danger  of  rescue,  military  will  aid  him  if  necessary. 

The  next  morning  Judge  Drummond  answered: 

They  are  to  be  treated  just  as  others  guilty  of  contempt 
of  court ;  they  have  a  right  to  purge  the  contempt,  and  if  time  is 
given  them  for  hearing  they  must  give  ample  bail  to  render  their 
appearance  certain.  I  have  eight  here  this  morning,  arrested 
in  Peoria.  If  guilty,  I  intend  to  punish  them  by  imprisonment, 
so  that  there  will  not  be  likely  to  be  any  interference  soon  again. 
Bail  ought  to  be  from  $1,500  to  $2,500  and  first  class.  My 
notion  is  about  $2,000. 

The  men  then  in  jail  were  promptly  admitted  to  bail. 
Having  taken  part  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety  in  organizing  the  volunteer  troops,  Judge 
Gresham  said  he  should  not  sit  as  a  judge  in  the  con- 
tempt proceedings. 


26  a 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
TRIALS  FOR  CONTEMPT  OF  COURT 


JUDGE    DRUMMOND    TAKES    UP    OHIO    &    MISSISSIPPI    LINE 

CASES     FIRST  —  THE     TERRE     HAUTE     CASES CONTROVERSY 

OVER    WARREN    N.    SAYER  —  PUNISHMENT    OF    THE    STRIKERS. 

A  UGUST,  2,  1877,  Judge  Drummond  began  the  hear- 
^*-  ings  in  Indianapolis  of  the  cases  of  the  men  charged 
with  contempt.     Before  proceeding  he  said : 

It  is  proper  for  the  court,  inasmuch  as  I  came  from  Chicago 
last  night  after  having  had  an  examination  of  some  of  the  rioters 
in  Illinois,  for  the  purpose  of  being  present  at  the  examination  of 
persons  who  are  charged  with  like  wrongful  acts  here,  to  explain 
why  I  have  come;  otherwise  I  probably  should  not  have  come  at 
this  time.  I  understand  that  my  brother  judge  has,  during  the 
course  of  the  excitement  that  has  occurred  here,  taken  a  rather 
active  part  as  a  citizen,  and  as  a  good  citizen,  I  believe,  in  aiding 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  contemplated  or  actual  riots  that  were  exist- 
ing. Under  these  circumstances  he  has  felt  a  desire  that  I  should 
be  present  and  that  I  should  take  the  responsibility  in  the  exam- 
ination of  the  parties  who  are  brought  before  the  court.  I,  of 
course,  am  perfectly  willing  to  do  so,  although  I  think  it  nothing 
more  than  fair  to  state  that  I  also,  as  circuit  judge  of  this  circuit, 
have  taken  a  very  active  part  in  doing  what  I  could  in  my  official 
capacity  to  put  down  this  mob.  I  have  simply  done  it  as  a  part 
of  my  official  duty  as  judge  of  the  United  States  Court.  I  have 
taken  no  active  part  individually  in  any  of  the  meetings  that 
have  occurred  throughout  the  community,  but  I  have  taken  a 
very  active  part,  I  believe,  as  a  judge  in  doing  all  that  was  in  my 
power  officially  to  put  an  end  to  the  state  of  affairs  that  existed 
throughout  the  country,  and  I  shall  always  feel  it  my  duty  to  do 
so  whenever  a  similar  state  of  affairs  exist.  I  am  now  ready  to 
proceed. 

402 


TRIALS    FOR    CONTEMPT    OF    COURT        403 

The  cases  against  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  strikers  were 
taken  up  first.  General  Harrison  and  C.  K.  Beecher  ap- 
peared against  them.  After  the  affidavits  had  been  read, 
showing  how  the  accused  had  interfered  with  the  movement 
of  trains  at  Vincennes,  they  announced  they  were  without 
counsel.  Judge  Drummond  then  adjourned  the  hearing  and 
appointed  W.  W.  Herod  and  Ferdinand  Winter  as  their  coun- 
sel. At  a  subsequent  hearing,  under  the  advice  of  counsel, 
Wentworth,  Lovejoy,  and  Bainsy  came  into  court  and  plead 
guilty,  but  asked  for  clemency  as  they  claimed  they  did 
not  know  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Railroad  was  operated  by 
a  receiver.  Reeves,  the  other  Ohio  &  Mississippi  striker, 
went  to  trial,  and  when  he  became  a  witness  in  his  behalf, 
although  vigorously  prosecuted  and  cross-examined  by  Gen- 
eral Harrison  in  an  endeavor  to  show  that  he  had  said  if 
there  was  any  righting  to  be  done  he  would  aid  the  strikers, 
Judge  Drummond  decided  there  was  not  enough  evidence 
to  hold  him  for  contempt,  but  he  said  he  would  excuse  him 
when  he  could  give  security  for  his  good  behavior  in  the 
future. 

The  hearing  of  those  who  interfered  with  the  Indiana, 
Bloomington  &  Western,  the  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati  & 
Lafayette  and  the  Logansport,  Crawfordsville  &  South- 
western consumed  the  second  and  third  days.  Albert  G. 
Porter  of  the  Indianapolis  bar,  and  Judge  Carlton  and 
General  Charles  Cruft,  of  the  Terre  Haute  bar,  appeared 
for  the  strikers,  while  Charles  W.  Fairbanks,  Major  Jona- 
than W.  Gordon,  and  Charles  Osborne  prosecuted  on  be- 
half of  the  receivers.  The  receivers,  their  superintendent, 
and  many  of  their  employees  were  witnesses  to  establish 
the  interference  with  the  movement  of  the  trains.  W.  R. 
McKeen,  president  of  the  Vandalia  Company,  told  how 
the  union  depot  at  Terre  Haute,  which  his  company  owned 
and  from  which  the  trains  of  the  receivers  of  the  road  to 
Logansport  were  operated,  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
strikers  from  Tuesday  until  Saturday;  that  no  trains  were 


404       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

allowed  during  that  period  to  arrive  or  depart  from  the 
depot;  that  the  strikers'  committee,  Mark  Miller,  Charles 
Watson,  E.  R.  Nesbit,  Daniel  Murphy,  and  Henry  Mc- 
Intire,  were  in  charge  of  the  mob.  Mr.  McKeen  pro- 
duced the  following  note  that  he  had  received  from  this 
committee : 

Let  engine  and  baggage  car  go,  provided  they  take  no 
passengers.  Committee. 

Judge  Drummond  interrupted  an  explanation  of  the 
counsel  that  the  defendants  meant  no  violence: 

Oh,  we  understand  that  this  mob  did  n't  want  anybody  to 
break  the  law  except  themselves. 

To  meet  the  claims  of  the  defendants  that  they  did  not 
know  the  road  was  operated  by  a  receiver,  Receiver  Clay- 
brook  testified  he  met  the  committee  on  Wednesday,  the 
25th  day  of  July,  and  showed  all  its  members  telegrams 
from  Judge  Gresham  that  the  road  was  operated  by  him, 
Claybrook,  as  a  receiver  appointed  by  the  United  States 
courts;  that  they  were  in  contempt  of  court  and  would  be 
punished  if  they  longer  continued  to  prevent  the  court 
from  operating  its  trains,  and  that  a  mail  train  consisted  of 
baggage,  express,  and  passenger  cars  as  well  as  mail  cars. 

But  the  greatest  controversy  was  in  the  case  of  Warren 
N.  Sayer,  secretary  of  the  Firemen's  Brotherhood.  It  de- 
veloped, according  to  some  of  the  witnesses  who  testified 
for  the  receivers,  that  Sayer  was  at  the  Union  Depot  in 
Indianapolis  on  Monday  the  23d  at  2  p.  m.,  before  the 
strike  began,  talking  to  men  there  on  the  train,  that  he  told 
a  police  officer,  "It  is  our  business  to  get  the  trainmen  to 
leave  if  we  can."  Charles  Manning,  the  marshal  at  the 
Union  Depot,  said  Sayer  was  there  all  the  week.  "I  sent 
to  Sayer,  Thursday,  a  passenger  who  wanted  to  be  allowed 
to  go  home.  He  came  back  swearing  that  the  men  (the 
crowd  in  which  Sayer  was)   wouldn't  let  him  go  home." 


TRIALS    FOR    CONTEMPT    OF    COURT        405 

Many  other  witnesses  testified  that  Sayer  was  constantly 
about  the  Union  Depot  with  the  committee  that  was  in 
charge.  The  members  of  the  committee  were  identified  by 
the  white  ribbons  they  wore.  William  Young,  a  ' '  hostler ' '  of 
the  Indiana,  Bloomington  &  Western,  a  receivers'  train, 
testified  that  on  Tuesday  morning  at  6  o'clock,  when  back- 
ing a  train  into  the  depot,  he  was  ordered  by  one  of  the 
committee  into  a  siding.  There  was  a  big  crowd  of  rail- 
road men  and  others  present.  "Sayer  came  up  on  the  cab 
of  my  engine  and  told  me  to  pull  in  on  the  sidetrack  or  I 
would  get  into  trouble.  I  did  so.  I  went  into  the  switch  on 
Sayer's  order." 

Captain  W.  D.  Miles,  chairman  of  the  police  board, 
testified  that  he  saw  Sayer  Wednesday  afternoon  as  he 
was  going  to  a  meeting  of  the  Citizens'  Committee;  that 
Sayer  was  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  150  strikers;  that  he  told 
Sayer  that  they  were  going  too  far  and  must  be  stopped. 
He  asked  in  what  way.  "I  told  him  he  was  breaking  the 
law,  and  the  authorities  had  put  up  with  it  as  long  as  they 
could.  He  said:  'We  are  acting  under  the  instructions 
of  your  governor  and  mayor.'  I  told  him  he  must  be 
mistaken;  that  they  never  gave  him  permission  to  use 
private  property,  cut  trains,  etc.  He  made  no  answer. 
Thursday,  at  the  Citizens'  meeting  in  the  Council  Chamber, 
I  introduced  Mr.  Evans,  agent  of  Cole's  Circus,  to  Sayer, 
he  having  been  sent  to  Sayer  by  Mr.  Malott,  manager  of 
the  Peru  Railroad.  Mr.  Sayer  asked  me  why  I  sent  that 
man  to  him;  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter. 
I  told  him  if  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  I  did  not  know 
who  did."  i 

Sayer,  who  was  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Firemen,  which  as  an  organization  was 
not  involved  in  the  strike,  denied  he  was  at  the  Union 
Depot  at  2  o'clock  on  Monday  the  23d  and  at  6  a.  m.  on 
Tuesday  when  Young,  the  Indiana,  Bloomington  &  Western 
"hostler,"  said  Sayer  ordered  him  into  the  siding  with  the 


406       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Indiana,  Bloomington  &  Western  train.  And  in  support  of 
an  alibi  as  against  Young's  statement,  Sayer  produced  wit- 
nesses who  testified  that  he  was  at  6  a.  m.  Tuesday  morning 
at  home  in  bed.  He  testified  further  that  he  had  counseled 
peaceable  measures  and  remained  about  the  depot  at  the 
request  of  Mayor  Cavin.  He  was  at  the  Spencer  House 
on  Tuesday  when  General  Spooner  instructed  the  railroad 
men  in  regard  to  the  roads  under  the  United  States  courts. 
Senator  MacDonald,  of  the  Citizens'  Committee,  testified 
that  Sayer  had  been  an  advocate  of  peace  in  all  his  inter- 
course with  him.  Mayor  Cavin  as  a  witness  was  a  partisan 
of  Sayer.  He  testified  he  had  seen  Sayer  the  Friday  the 
strike  began,  with  a  view  to  learning  what  he  could  of  the 
probable  action  of  the  man,  as  he  then  considered  a  strike 
inevitable.  Sayer,  he  said,  assured  him  there  would  be  no 
violence  and  the  men  would  only  use  lawful  means.  ' '  From 
that  time  on  I  was  in  almost  daily  consultation  with  him, 
and  at  all  times  and  to  all  persons  in  my  presence,  and 
elsewhere  as  I  have  learned,  he  counseled  peace  and  ob- 
servance of  the  law." 

Judge  Gresham  was  a  spectator  in  court  and  took  a 
hand  in  cross-examining  the  Mayor.  In  response  to  Judge 
Gresham's  questions  the  Mayor  said: 

Sayer  at  all  times  was  opposed  to  the  stoppage  of  trains  and 
did  what  he  could  to  secure  their  passage,  and  did  succeed.  I 
never  told  Governor  Williams  and  others  that  if  General  Spooner 
was  sent  down  to  the  depot  to  arrest  the  men,  he  would  be  torn 
to  pieces  quicker  than  you  [Judge  Gresham]  could  draw  your 
breath.  I  did  say  that  all  it  would  be  necessary  to  do  would  be 
to  send  General  Spooner  with  an  order  over  there  and  the  trains 
would  be  moved.  I  do  not  think  that  Sayer  claimed  to  represent 
anybody  in  the  conversation  I  had  with  him.  He  was  talking 
for  himself.  The  trouble  we  talked  about  was  the  burning  and 
destruction  of  property,  not  the  interference  with  trains.  At 
the  time  the  railroad  men  were  sworn  in  as  policemen,  Tuesday, 
four  days  after  Sayer  had  told  me  the  strike  would  be  here,  no 
other  extra  policemen  had  been  sworn  in. 


TRIALS    FOR    CONTEMPT    OF    COURT        407 

To  Judge  Drummond  Judge  Gresham  said:  " Mayor 
Cavin  is  not  candid  in  his  testimony  as  to  what  he  said 
to  Governor  Williams  and  myself  about  sending  General 
Spooner  to  the  depot."  That  Judge  Gresham  thought 
Sayer  was  guilty  under  the  evidence,  he  did  not  conceal. 
He  felt  free  to  express  his  personal  views  as  a  partisan,  as 
he  was  not  the  judge.  He  never  wanted  power  for  the  mere 
gratification  of  exercising  it,  and  never  would  exercise  it  nor 
any  judicial  function  where  his  feelings  might  be  a  factor  in 
influencing  his  decision.  During  most  of  the  days  of  the 
hearings,  as  was  usually  the  case  when  Judge  Drummond 
came  to  Indianapolis,  he  was  a  guest  at  our  house,  but 
during  this  time  my  husband  avoided  mentioning  the  Sayer 
or  the  other  cases  to  Judge  Drummond  until  they  were 
disposed  of. 

"I  hardly  think  the  testimony  in  the  case  of  Warren  N. 
Sayer  is  sufficient  to  warrant  the  court  punishing  him  for 
contempt,"  said  Judge  Drummond  in  disposing  of  the  case. 
Then  he  proceeded: 

"Sitting  as  a  court  without  a  jury,  with  no  appeal,  the 
court  is  loath  to  punish  for  contempt  except  in  a  case  of  the 
clearest  evidence.  Whether  or  not  the  court  would  be 
justified  in  punishing  Sayer  for  contempt  in  interfering  with 
the  operations  of  a  road  intrusted  to  the  custody  of  the 
court,  by  endeavoring  to  persuade  employees  who  were 
satisfied  to  leave  the  service  of  the  receiver  and  thus  inter- 
fere with  the  functions  of  the  court,  is  not  a  charge  here 
made,  and  I  will  express  no  opinion  upon  that  question. 
And  while  the  evidence  is  not  clear  enough  to  justify  the 
court  in  punishing  Sayer,  I  think  his  conduct  is  such  as  to 
require  him  to  enter  into  a  recognizance  with  the  court  for 
his  good  behavior  for  a  year." 

The  other  strikers  were  punished  by  being  sentenced  to 
imprisonment  in  jail  for  a  period  of  from  thirty  days  to  six 
months,  with  the  understanding  that  application  might  be 
made  by  them  to  the  district  judge  for  their  release,     The 


408       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

evidence  was  clear  that  they  had  participated  in  actual 
violence.  Before  the  period  of  their  imprisonments  expired 
they  asked  for  clemency  and  were  released. 

In  a  letter  written  on  the  6th  of  August  to  his  former 
law  partner,  my  husband  said,  "I  wish  Grant  had  been 
President;  yet  I  think  President  Hayes  has  done  his  duty 
in  this  emergency."  The  strike  of  1877  brought  my  hus- 
band, as  it  did  many  others,  back  to  General  Grant  as  a 
desirable  man  for  the  Presidency.  Thomas  A.  Hendricks 
was  silent  as  he  always  was  about  such  matters,  but  later 
gave  his  assent  to  what  was  done,  while  Senator  MacDonald 
said  that  many  of  his  ideas  as  to  the  functions  of  the  State 
and  National  government  had  been  practically  changed  by 
what  he  had  witnessed. 

In  the  next  chapter,  though  out .  of  the  chronological 
order,  I  will  tell  of  two  other  strikes,  as  they  will  illustrate 
Walter  Q.  Gresham's  views  as  a  judge  and  as  an  executive. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
BURLINGTON   STRIKE  AND   DEBS'S  REBELLION 


STRIKE  VOTED  ON  THE  BURLINGTON  ROAD  —  OTHER 
ROADS  REFUSE  BURLINGTON'S  FREIGHT — RECEIVER  OF 
WABASH  COMPANY  INVOLVED  —  INTERPRETATION  OF  INTER- 
STATE COMMERCE  ACT  —  GENERAL  STRIKE  AVOIDED — 
AMENDMENT  OF  INTERSTATE  COMMERCE  ACT  —  PULLMAN 
STRIKE,  OR  "DEBS'S  REBELLION" — INTERFERENCE  WITH 
MAIL  TRAINS  —  CLEVELAND'S  PROCLAMATION  AND  MILES's 
PROMPT   ACTION    SUPPRESS    DISORDER. 

A^VN  the  14th  of  February,  1888,  a  committee  of  engi- 
^^  neers  and  firemen  on  the  Chicago,  Burlington  & 
Quincy  Railroad  called  on  the  general  managers  of  that 
road  and  asked  for  an  adjustment  of  the  wage  scale. 
What  they  particularly  desired  was  that  the  engineers 
and  firemen  be  paid  a  uniform  wage  on  a  mileage  basis. 
The  claim  was  partly  based  on  the  fact  that  other  roads — 
90  per  cent  of  the  railroads  of  the  country,  the  men  claimed 
—  had  adopted  that  system. 

At  this  time  the  Wabash  Railroad  east  of  the  Mississ- 
ippi River  was  operated  by  a  receiver  appointed  by  Circuit 
Judge  Gresham.  General  John  McNulta  was  that  receiver. 
A  committee  of  engineers  had  waited  on  him  with  demands, 
the  greater  part  of  which  he  was  able  to  satisfy  them  he  could 
not  meet  in  view  of  the  repairs  and  rehabilitation  work  that 
it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  have  done  out  of  earnings, 
the  only  source  available  for  the  purpose.  They  were  not 
heard  of  again  until  the  strike  began  on  the  "Q." 

The  Burlington  management  claimed  that  the  old  and 
experienced  engineer  should  be  paid  more  than  the  man  who 
had  just  been  promoted  from  the  position  of  fireman;  that 

409 


410       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

an  engineer  of  an  engine  hauling  a  train  of  twenty  or  thirty- 
cars  should  be  paid  more  than  an  engineer  of  an  engine 
hauling  but  two  or  three  cars;  that  the  management  should 
be  the  judge  as  to  which  engineer  should  be  paid  the  most, 
and  that  on  the  branch  lines  men  should  receive  less  than 
on  the  main  line.  The  men  and  the  general  manager  of 
the  company  could  not  agree. 

P.  M.  Arthur,  the  chief  of  the  engineers,  and  F.  P.  Sar- 
geant,  the  chief  of  the  firemen,  were  called  to  Chicago  to 
adjust  the  trouble.  They  failed,  and  gave  their  consent  to 
the  men  quitting  if  they  so  decided. 

The  men  voted  to  strike.  Again  the  matter  was  brought 
to  the  managers  of  the  Burlington  system,  and  again  no 
agreement  was  reached. 

Thereupon,  on  the  23d  day  of  February,  Messrs.  Arthur 
and  Sargeant  joined  in  a  telegram  to  C.  E.  Perkins,  the 
president  of  the  Burlington  system  at  Boston,  that  they 
had  been  unable  to  adjust  the  grievances  of  the  engineers 
and  firemen  with  General  Manager  Stone,  that  the  men 
were  determined  to  strike,  that  they  wanted  to  prevent  it 
and  would  accept  terms  made  with  the  Alton  and  the 
Santa  Fe,  namely,  three  and  one-half  cents  per  mile  for 
passenger  engineers,  four  cents  for  freight  engineers,  and 
sixty  per  cent  of  this  for  the  firemen. 

On  the  24th,  Mr.  Perkins  replied  to  this  telegram,  as 
follows : 

At  this  distance  and  without  knowing  more  than  I  do  about 
the  merits  of  the  grievances  complained  of,  it  is  impossible  for 
me  to  have  definite  opinions  or  to  give  definite  orders.  The  whole 
question  has  necessarily  been  left,  therefore,  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Stone,  to  whom  I  wrote  you  would  show  your  telegram  and 
this  reply.  The  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  Railroad  is  ready 
and  expects  to  pay  at  least  as  good  wages  as  are  paid  by  its  neigh- 
bors, but  the  railroad  situation  is  not  such  as  to  justify  any  general 
increase  at  present,  and  I  fear  an  attempt  to  force  it  would  only 
aggravate  the  situation.  I  have  felt  and  still  feel  confident  that 
a  way  can  be  found  for  satisfactorily  adjusting  any  real  grievances 


< 


THE     BURLINGTON     STRIKE  411 

which  may  have  grown  up  since  matters  were  settled  two  years 
ago,  and  I  hope  for  all  concerned  that  nothing  will  be  done  hastily. 
I  hope  to  be  in  Chicago  next  week. 

The  following  day,  Sunday,  at  11  o'clock,  Hodge  and 
Murphy  of  the  Engineer's  Grievance  Committee  called  on 
Mr.  Stone  in  his  office,  presented  the  telegram  of  Mr.  Per- 
kins, and  asked  a  conference,  stating  if  it  or  the  terms 
previously  asked  were  not  granted,  the  strike  would  be 
inaugurated  at  4  a.  m.  the  next  morning. 

Mr.  Stone  and  his  associates,  among  whom  was  Paul 
Morton,  afterwards  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  President 
Roosevelt,  promptly  and  with  scant  courtesy,  as  it  was  said 
at  the  time,  informed  Messrs.  Hodge  and  Murphy  that  they 
had  previously  received  their  answer  and  there  would  be  no 
conference.  At  4  a.  m.  the  next  day,  the  27th,  the  strike 
began.  That  both  sides  were  hasty  is  apparent.  That 
both  desired  the  contest  was  well  understood  at  the  time. 
The  men  felt  they  were  strong  in  that  they  could  force  the 
connecting  lines  and  roads  operating  in  the  same  territory 
as  the  Burlington  to  refuse  to  interchange  traffic  with  the 
Burlington;  while  the  Burlington  management  had  assur- 
ances that  the  Knights  of  Labor  would  furnish  all  the 
engineers  necessary  to  man  the  Burlington  engines  in  the 
event  of  the  strike.  A  short  time  before  the  engineers  of 
the  latter  order  had  inaugurated  a  strike  on  the  Reading 
Railroad  and  their  places  had  been  taken  by  engineers  who 
were  members  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Engineers,  the  order 
to  which  the  Burlington  engineers  belonged. 

President  Perkins  of  the  Burlington  road  arrived  in 
Chicago  three  hours  after  the  strike  began.  He  stopped 
at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  where  Messrs.  Arthur  and 
Sargeant  maintained  the  strike  headquarters.  He  not  un- 
justly complained  that  in  view  of  his  telegram  the  strikers 
had  acted  hastily.  They  answered  that  as  he  stated  his 
coming  was  indefinite  and  had  referred  them  to  General 
Manager  Stone,  Mr.  Stone's  answer  was  an  ultimatum. 


412       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

At  first,  before  the  Knights  of  Labor  engineers  got  to 
work,  traffic  was  completely  suspended  on  the  Burlington. 
The  managements  of  most  of  the  railroads  running  west 
from  Chicago  — competitors  of  the  Burlington  — promptly 
announced  they  would  adopt  a  policy  of  neutrality  between 
the  Burlington  and  its  striking  employees.  The  Chicago  & 
Alton,  the  Rock  Island,  and  the  Santa  Fe  Lines  went  further; 
they  said  they  would  not  honor  tickets  good  for  passage 
over  their  lines  and  sold  by  the  Burlington  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  strike.  Up  to  that  time  the  Burlington  was  the 
most  popular  line  between  Chicago  and  Omaha  and  Denver. 

The  refusal  of  the  roads  to  receive  freight  from  the  Bur- 
lington was  based  on  the  clause  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Act  which  required  all  common  carriers  to  afford  facilities 
for  the  exchange  of  traffic  according  to  their  prospective 
powers.     As  the  Rock  Island  management  put  it: 

It  will  not  suspend  the  operation  of  its  entire  line  and  inflict 
irreparable  injury  upon  the  communities  dependent  upon  it  for 
transportation  because  circumstances  render  it  impossible  for  it 
to  exchange  traffic  with  another  railroad  company. 

They  also  set  forth  that  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act 
only  imposed  a  penalty  "when  the  corporation  wilfully  do 
so  or  cause  to  be  done  or  shall  wilfully  suffer  or  permit  the 
acts  complained  of  to  be  done,"  therefore,  they  said,  they 
were  not  acting  wilfully  when  they  were  refusing  all  inter- 
changing traffic  with  the  Burlington  under  threats  of  their 
own  employees  to  strike. 

Other  railroad  men  took  the  position  that  if  Receiver 
McNulta  of  the  Wabash,  an  officer  of  the  United  States 
Court  and  a  lawyer,  could  afford  to  ignore  Sections  Three 
and  Seven  of  the  Interstate  Act,  they  ran  no  risk  in  taking 
the  same  position.  General  McNulta  stated  that  he  in- 
tended to  render  strict  obedience  to  the  law,  but  that  in 
order  to  preserve  the  property  intrusted  to  his  care,  he  did 
not  propose  to  leave  anything  undone  that  could  be  done, 


THE    BURLINGTON    STRIKE  413 

or  that  his  competitors  were  doing,  to  save  the  owners  from 
serious  loss,  that  he  intended  to  sail  as  close  to  the  wind 
as  the  managers  of  other  corporations  similarly  situated. 
Before  General  McNulta  made  this  statement  it  had  been 
announced  in  the  press  that  the  engineers  on  the  Wabash 
would  leave  their  positions  if  the  Wabash  receiver  attempted 
to  handle  traffic  coming  to  the  Wabash  from  the  Burlington. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  the  Burlington  Company  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  8th  of  March  filed  its  petition  in  the  Wa- 
bash receivership,  in  which  an  order  was  asked  on  General 
McNulta  as  receiver  to  interchange  traffic  with  the  Bur- 
lington, and  for  an  order  restraining  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers  and  P.  M.  Arthur,  its  chief  executive 
officer,  from  in  any  way  giving  orders  to  the  engineers  in 
the  employ  of  the  receiver  to  refuse  to  haul  loaded  cars 
coming  to  or  going  from  the  railroad  in  charge  of  McNulta 
as  receiver  of  the  Wabash  Railroad,  in  the  usual  course  of 
business  with  the  Burlington,  and  for  a  rule  on  Arthur  to 
show  cause  why  he  should  not  be  punished  for  contempt 
in  interfering  with  the  receiver  in  the  operation  of  the 
Wabash  Railroad. 

At  the  hearing  on  the  20th  it  developed  that  there  had 
been  no  instructions  by  P.  M.  Arthur  to  any  of  the  receiver's 
employees,  and  that  on  the  19th,  Receiver  McNulta,  on  his 
own  volition,  as  he  claimed,  had  resumed  relations  with  the 
Burlington.  Alexander  Sullivan,  Mr.  Arthur's  attorney, 
was  then  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  large  law  practice  and  was 
the  ''uncrowned  king"  of  the  Irish  organization  known  as 
the  Clan-na-Gael.  Wirt  Dexter  and  Henry  Crawford,  coun- 
sel for  the  Burlington,  pressed  the  contempt  proceeding. 
Robert  T.  Lincoln,  General  George  W.  Smith,  and  William 
G.  Beal,  counsel  for  General  McNulta,  said,  as  the  order  of 
Receiver  McNulta  to  his  subordinates  to  refuse  to  inter- 
change traffic  with  the  Burlington  had  been  rescinded  and 
the  receiver  had  no  complaint  to  make  against  Arthur  and 
Sargeant,  the  petition  of  the  Burlington  Company  should  be 


4U       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

dismissed.  But  at  the  request  of  the  Burlington  attorneys, 
Judge  Gresham  agreed  to  look  into  the  papers,  and  the 
second  day  thereafter  delivered  an  opinion,  in  which  he  said : 

Although  the  property  of  the  Wabash  Company  is  in  the  custody 
of  the  court,  it  is  operated  by  the  receiver  as  a  common  carrier. 
His  rights  and  duties  are  those  of  a  carrier.  He  is  bound  to  afford 
all  railroad  companies  whose  lines  connect  with  his,  equal  facili- 
ties for  the  exchange  of  traffic.  It  is  his  duty  to  receive  from  and 
deliver  to  other  connecting  roads  both  loaded  and  empty  cars. 
He  cannot  discriminate  against  one  road  by  maintaining  a  policy 
of  non-intercourse  with  it.  More  need  not  be  said  on  this  ques- 
tion, as  the  receiver  has  wisely  rescinded  the  instructions  which 
discriminated  against  the  petitioner,  and  declares  he  has  no 
purpose  or  desire  to  deny  to  the  petitioner  any  of  its  legal  rights. 
Although  the  petition  has  accomplished  its  chief  purpose  in  invok- 
ing the  aid  of  the  court,  it  is  urged  by  its  counsel  that  persons 
belonging  to  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers,  and 
especially  P.  M.  Arthur,  who  is  the  chief  officer  of  that  organi- 
zation, have  interfered  with  the  receiver  and  his  subordinates 
in  the  management  of  the  Wabash  property,  and  that  they  should 
be  punished  for  their  illegal  and  contumacious  conduct.  The 
receiver  and  his  counsel  make  no  such  complaint.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  receiver  declares  there  has  been  no  such  interference 
with  him.  While  the  affidavits  submitted  in  support  of  the 
petition  show  that  Mr.  Arthur  sent  a  telegraphic  message  to  the 
engineers  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  at  Omaha, 
directing  them  to  haul  no  cars  of  the  petitioner,  it  does  not  fairly 
appear  from  the  evidence  that  the  engineers  in  the  service  of  the 
receiver  received  such  orders  by  telegraph  or  otherwise.  For  the 
present  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  court  will  protect  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Wabash  Company  in  its  custody. 

The  employees  of  the  receiver  cannot  be  obliged  to  remain 
in  his  service  against  their  will,  but  neither  they  nor  others  will 
be  permitted  to  interfere  with  or  disturb  the  receiver  or  his  sub- 
ordinates in  the  possession  and  operation  of  the  property  in  his 
custody.  Lawless  interferences  with  the  receiver  and  his  employ- 
ees in  the  discharge  of  their  duty  will  not  be  tolerated.  It  is 
proper  to  state,  however,  in  justice  to  the  Wabash  engineers, 


THE    BURLINGTON    STRIKE  415 

that  they  do  not  desire  to  maintain  an  attitude  of  defiance  to  the 
law,  and  that  they  are  now  willing  to  aid  the  receiver  in  the  law- 
ful and  successful  administration  of  his  trust.  The  receiver's 
answer  renders  it  unnecessary  for  the  court  to  do  more  than  direct 
that  the  petition  remain  on  file  for  future  action  should  there  be 
occasion  for  it. 

R.  R.  Cable,  the  president  of  the  Rock  Island  Railroad 
Company,  alone  criticized  the  decision.  In  view  of  the 
ambiguity  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act,  Mr.  Cable  said 
the  court  was  not  justified  in  pronouncing  a  judgment  that 
would  involve  other  railroad  corporations  in  the  strike. 
But  the  decision  was  not  based  on  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Act,  but  on  the  general  obligations  of  a  common 
carrier  to  interchange  traffic,  and  on  the  inherent  powers 
of  the  court.  The  criticism  was  recognized  by  the  bar  and 
the  lawmaking  power  as  applying  to  the  Interstate  Act,  and 
it  was  promptly  amended  so  as  to  give  the  courts  the  power 
to  do  what  Mr.  Cable  said  Judge  Gresham  had  assumed. 

With  a  statute  behind  him,  Judge  Taft  took  forty  pages 
to  reach  a  conclusion  Judge  Gresham  arrived  at  in  five. 
Under  the  Act  as  amended,  Judge  Taft  in  1894  punished 
an  engineer  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  for  refusing  to 
obey  a  mandatory  injunction  commanding  the  Pennsylvania 
Company  and  its  employees  to  accept  cars  coming  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Company  at  Toledo  from  the  Toledo  &  Ann 
Arbor  Road.  Long  opinions,  Judge  Gresham  said,  tend 
to  create  the  impression  in  the  popular  mind  that  there  is 
a  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  judge.  There  was  acquiescence 
in  the  opinion  in  the  "Q"  case  where  there  was  dissent  in 
the  Ann  Arbor.  But  this  tribute  I  pay  to  Mr.  Taft  as  judge 
and  President :  when  it  came  to  enforcing  the  law,  he  lived 
up  to  the  best  traditions  of  the  Republic. 

After  reading  his  opinion,  Judge  Gresham  called  Alex- 
ander Sullivan  into  chambers  and  told  him  there  ought  not 
to  be  a  general  strike,  and  urged  him  to  give  his  clients  good 
advice.     According  to  some,  a  judge  should  not  have  done 


416       LIFE     OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

this.  But  the  employees  of  the  other  lines  as  well  as  the 
Wabash  engineers,  and  Wirt  Dexter,  the  counsel  of  the  Bur- 
lington, accepted  the  decision  as  final.  There  was  no  gen- 
eral strike  and  Mr.  Dexter  declared  himself  satisfied. 

Afterwards,  in  a  magazine  article  attacking  courts  in 
general,  Eugene  V.  Debs,  who  was  the  secretary  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  Firemen  at  the  time  of  the  Burlington 
strike,  stated  that  after  the  decision  was  announced,  the 
firemen  called  on  their  counsel,  Alexander  Sullivan,  for  an 
opinion  as  to  what  Judge  Gresham  would  do  if  in  the  face 
of  the  decision  the  heads  of  the  Brotherhoods  should  order 
out  the  employees  of  the  receiver  of  the  Wabash.  Sullivan 
said,  "The  judge  will  put  you  all  in  jail  for  contempt." 
Debs  then  stated,  "We  took  no  chances;  we  took  Sullivan's 
advice,  and  paid  him  a  big  fee  for  his  opinion." 

The  practical  results  of  the  strike  were  a  decision  that 
common  carriers  were  bound  to  interchange  traffic  although 
the  employees  of  one  were  on  a  strike,  the  amendment  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Act  to  that  effect,  many  men  perma- 
nently out  of  their  positions,  and  an  entire  change  in  the 
chief  operating  men  on  the  Burlington  system. 

During  the  Pullman  strike,  or  "Debs's  Rebellion,"  as 
the  strike  of  1894  was  sometimes  called,  Walter  Q.  Gresham 
was  Secretary  of  State  in  the  cabinet  of  Grover  Cleveland. 
A  controversy  arose  in  the  shops  of  the  Pullman  Palace 
Car  Company  between  it  and  its  employees  over  wages.  It 
was  no  concern  of  the  American  Railway  Union,  a  new  order 
that  admitted  to  its  membership  all  classes  of  railroad  em- 
ployees. The  controversy  with  the  Pullman  employees  had 
not  been  carried  on  long  until  the  annual  convention  of 
the  American  Railway  Union  met  at  Uhlrich  Hall  in  Chi- 
cago. Over  much  opposition,  Eugene  V.  Debs,  the  presi- 
dent, and  George  Howard,  the  vice-president  of  the  order, 
carried  through  the  convention  a  resolution  to  boycott 
Pullman  cars  and  to  declare  a  strike  on  all  railroads  that 
handled  Pullman  cars,  unless  the  Pullman  Company  settled 


THE    BURLINGTON    STRIKE  4*7 

its  controversy  with  its  shop  employees.  It  started  with 
violence  in  Chicago,  and  spread  all  over  the  West  and  as 
far  east  as  Pittsburgh  before  it  stopped. 

Some  of  the  railroad  corporations  contemplated  filing  a 
bill  in  the  Federal  courts  to  enjoin  interference  with  their 
property,  when  Attorney-General  Olney  took  the  matter 
in  hand  and  directed  the  filing  of  a  Bill  in  Equity  in  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  at  Chicago  in  the  name  of  the 
United  States  against  Debs  and  his  associates  in  the  Amer- 
ican Railway  Union,  praying  that  they  be  enjoined  from 
interfering  with  the  property  of  all  the  railroads,  specifically 
naming  those  entering  at  Chicago,  and  from  interfering  with 
free  transportation  of  United  States  mails.  In  a  measure 
the  bill  was  drafted  on  the  theory  that  the  boycott  was  a 
conspiracy  that  fell  within  the  ban  of  the  Sherman  Anti- 
trust Act  of  1890.  Judges  Woods  and  Grosscup  so  inter- 
preted it,  and  issued  an  injunction  which  was  served  on 
some  of  the  strikers  by  deputy  United  States  marshals. 
Subsequently  the  Supreme  Court  held  the  injunction  could 
not  be  maintained  under  the  Sherman  Act;  Judge  Woods 
is  reported  to  have  said,  if  not  under  the  Sherman  Act,  not 
at  all.  The  Supreme  Court,  resting  its  conclusion  on  its 
general  equity  powers  and  its  duty  to  aid  the  executive  in 
enforcing  the  commerce  clause  of  the  Constitution,  upheld 
the  injunction,  and  also  the  jail  sentence  of  Debs  and  his 
associates  imposed  by  Judge  Woods  for  violating  the  in- 
junction. 

At  this  time  Mayor  Hopkins  of  Chicago,  so  it  was  said, 
was  averse  to  furnishing  adequate  police  protection,  and 
Governor  Altgeld  was  protesting  against  the  President  send- 
ing troops  to  Chicago  except  at  his  request.  After  the 
injunction  was  issued,  Judge  Woods  said,  "Now  they  have 
their  injunction,  let  them  enforce  it."  Judge  Grosscup 
telegraphed  the  President  for  troops  as  soon  as  the  injunc- 
tion was  issued.  Meantime  the  superintendent  of  the  rail- 
way mail  service  at  Chicago  had  notified  the  Postmaster- 


41S       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

General  that  the  movement  of  the  mail  trains  at  Chicago 
was  prevented  by  force.  There  were  troops  in  Chicago, 
more  on  their  way,  and  General  Nelson  A.  Miles 's  head- 
quarters were  in  Chicago.  I  had  been  in  Chicago  a  short 
time  before  and  had  heard  much  of  the  unrest  that  was 
abroad,  and  of  the  disposition  of  some  of  the  big  business 
men  to  keep  up  the  business  depression. 

One  day,  after  an  early  dinner,  my  husband  and  I  took 
a  drive  to  the  Soldiers'  Home.  The  evening  papers  had 
contained  accounts  of  the  way  the  strikers  had  been  disre- 
garding the  injunctions  and  destroying  property  and  burn- 
ing cars.  As  we  drove  along  I  expressed  my  fears  that  the 
damage  done  would  be  large  and  that  there  might  be  a 
great  loss  of  life,  and  as  I  had  two  grandchildren  in  Chicago, 
I  was  getting  more  apprehensive  all  the  time.  My  hus- 
band said,  ''This  is  the  most  senseless  strike  ever  inaugu- 
rated. Olney  and  Lamont  have  it  in  hand  and  it  will  soon 
be  ended." 

To  this  I  answered,  "They  never  have  had  any  experi- 
ence in  such  matters.  Pullman  is  personally  a  very  un- 
popular man.  The  feeling  against  him  is  not  confined  to 
the  working  classes.  Rich  men,  but  not  so  rich  as  he,  share 
this  feeling.  Some  of  them  will  sell  Pullman  stock  short 
and  fan  the  flames.  You  remember  how  Charles  T.  Yerkes 
stirred  up  a  strike  on  the  West  Division  street  car  line 
when  he  wanted  to  buy  J.  Russell  Jones's  stock,  and  how 
old  J.  Russell  sold.  And  don't  you  remember  how  General 
Miles  came  to  our  house  and  wanted  you  to  put  yourself 
at  the  head  of  the  People's  party  movement?  He  even 
had  prepared  a  proclamation  he  wanted  you  to  issue  in 
which  it  was  set  forth  that  the  Government  had  been  per- 
verted from  the  purposes  of  the  founders  and  was  adminis- 
tered only  in  the  interest  of  the  few.  In  this  document 
Miles  denounced  both  Harrison  and  Cleveland.  He  said 
to  you,  if  you  would  sign  this,  the  masses  who  have  made 
this  country  what  it  is  would  rally  as  a  man  to  you.     In 


THE     BURLINGTON    STRIKE  419 

his  heart  General  Miles  has  a  contempt  for  George  M. 
Pullman,  and  his  sympathies  are  with  the  masses.  You 
had  better  do  something." 

For  a  time  there  was  silence.  Then  my  husband  said, 
''John,  you  had  better  drive  home."  At  the  Arlington 
Hotel  he  said,  "I  guess  I  will  go  to  the  White  House."  In 
two  hours  he  returned  and  said,  "You  need  worry  no  more 
about  your  grandchildren.  We  sent  for  Lamont;  General 
Miles  has  peremptory  orders  to  command  the  situation, 
and  he  has  all  the  troops  he  needs  for  that  purpose. 
Lamont  talked  to  him  over  the  telephone."  The  next  day 
President  Cleveland  issued  his  proclamation  calling  on  all 
good  citizens  to  abstain  from  force  and  violence  and  not  to 
interfere  further  with  the  movement  of  mail  trains  and  in- 
ter-state commerce.  It  was  this  proclamation  and  General 
Miles' s  prompt  action  that  suppressed  the  disorder  in  Chi- 
cago. Lawyers  and  judges  meet  at  Bar  Associations  and 
write  and  talk  about  how  the  injunction  of  Judges  Woods 
and  Grosscup  suppressed  the  Debs  strike.  Instead  of  abat- 
ing the  "nuisance,"  the  issuance  of  the  injunction  only 
infuriated  the  mob.  Its  only  practical  effect,  including 
Debs's  imprisonment  for  contempt  without  a  jury  trial, 
was  to  make  him  a  martyr  and  perennial  candidate  for 
President  on  the  Socialist  ticket.  But  for  this,  distrusted 
by  the  men  he  had  misled,  he  might  soon  have  disap- 
peared. The  disorder  suppressed,  if  the  criminal  code 
was  so  crude  that  Debs  and  his  confederates  could  not  be 
successfully  prosecuted  before  a  jury,  and  in  this  my  hus- 
band did  not  concur,  it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  amend 
the  law  by  defining  what  acts  of  interfering  with  a  mail 
train  or  any  part  of  an  interstate  railroad,  constituted  a 
crime.  But  the  failure  of  Congress  to  provide  a  specific 
criminal  code  did  not  give  the  equity  court  jurisdiction 
in  criminal  cases. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  GREENBACK  CONTENTION  IN  INDIANA 

POLITICS 


THE  MONEY  QUESTION  —  LEGAL  TENDER  DECISIONS  — 
CONSTITUTIONALITY  OF  GREENBACKS  —  WHAT  IS  MONEY?  — 
PASSAGE  OF  THE  "  PUBLIC  DEBT  ACT " — DEMOCRATIC  VIC- 
TORY OF  1874  —  HENRY  WATTERSON,  THOMAS  A.  HENDRICKS, 
AND  DANIEL  W.  VOORHEES  —  RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAY- 
MENTS—  REISSUE  OF  PAPER  —  DISCUSSION  OF  THE  LAST 
LEGAL  TENDER  DECISION.  THAT  OF  1884  —  A  CABINET  DINNER 
PARTY    IN    WASHINGTON. 

TN  1874  Judge  Gresham  supported  Michael  C.  Kerr  as  a 
<*■  Democrat  for  Congress  on  a  hard  money  platform. 
In  those  days  the  distinction  was  ''hard"  or  "sound  money" 
men,  and  "soft"  or  "paper  money"  men  —  men  who  be- 
lieved in  coin,  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  constitution,  or 
men  who  believed  in  a  paper  currency  behind  which  stood 
the  pledge  of  the  nation.  My  husband  belonged  to  the 
former  class. 

Political  in  form,  the  question  in  its  essence  was,  and 
is,  economic  and  judicial.  What  was,  or  is,  money?  After- 
wards, in  the  'go's,  a  great  question  arose  as  to  which,  gold 
or  silver,  was  money.  Economic  conditions  had  changed 
the  value  of  silver.  Mr.  Bryan  said  the  word  "coin" 
meant  silver;  Mr.  Cleveland  said  it  meant  gold.  The  over- 
production of  silver  debased  it  as  money.  The  increased 
production  of  gold  answered  the  objection  that  the  demon- 
etization of  silver  contracted  the  volume  of  money  or  the 
medium  of  exchange. 

In  1874  the  simple  question  was,  Did  the  word  "coin" 
mean   unlimited  issues  of  paper  money?     Certainly  not. 

420 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION    IN    INDIANA      42T 

And  before  the  nations  have  recovered  from  the  effects  of 
the  present  European  war,  the  kings,  the  bankers,  and  the 
people  of  Europe  will  realize  that  unlimited  issues  of  prom- 
ises, on  paper,  to  pay,  even  if  it  be  in  the  form  of  bonds,  is 
not  money.  Silver  will  be  better  than  that.  Should  the 
alchemist  succeed  in  making  gold  as  common  as  pig  iron, 
it  would  no  longer  be  money,  the  medium  of  exchange 
or  the  yardstick.  But  so  long  as  it  continues  at  its  present 
volume,  it  will  be  the  medium  in  which  the  final  settlement 
must  be  made. 

The  Union  soldier  was  paid  in  "greenbacks,"  which  were 
at  a  discount  at  the  start  and  decreased  in  value  as  they 
increased  in  volume;  that  is,  gold  commanded  a  higher 
premium  every  day,  especially  after  a  Union  defeat,  just 
as  the  Confederate  soldiers'  money  went  to  zero  with  the 
collapse  of  the  Confederacy.  So  unlimited  were  the  issues 
of  the  paper  money  of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  so 
worthless  did  that  money  become,  that  we  still  have  the 
expression,  "Not  worth  a  Continental."  It  takes  some- 
thing more  than  a  printing  press  and  unlimited  supplies  of 
ink  and  white  paper  to  make  money.  But  the  greenback, 
dollar  for  dollar,  bought  government  bonds,  while  the  bonds 
would  not,  at  their  face,  buy  gold  for  the  government.  Not 
many  of  the  soldiers,  however,  whose  sacrifices  were  to 
make  the  bonds  as  good  as  gold,  had  any  greenbacks  to 
spare  to  buy  bonds,  and  therein  was  the  basis  for  the  argu- 
ment that  was  afterwards  made  against  paying  the  bonds 
in  gold. 

My  observation  of  the  prowess  of  the  Federal  soldiers 
in  the  field,  and  the  ability  of  many  of  their  leaders  whom  I 
met,  led  me  to  invest  in  government  bonds  the  money  my 
husband  sent  me  "for  a  rainy  day."  At  this  time  I  was 
saving  to  the  last  degree.  I  bought  some  " seven- thirties , " 
that  is,  bonds  drawing  seven  per  cent  and  payable  in  thirty 
years.  When  gold  went  to  260  and  my  husband  thought 
it  would  go  higher,  he  advised  shifting  the  savings  from 
27 


XJ 


422       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

bonds  to  gold,  but  told  me  to  consult  Mr.  Slaughter.  Mr, 
Slaughter  said  gold  was  too  high.  He  was  a  very  clear- 
headed man  with  unbounded  faith  in  the  securities  of  our 
government,  even  more  than  my  husband,  so  I  continued 
to  hold  on  to  my  few  bonds. 

Walter  Q.  Gresham  accepted  the  "greenback"  as  a  dis- 
tinct war  measure,  assuming  they  were  to  be  retired  at  the 
end  of  hostilities.  During  1862-3,  the  government  issued 
in  all  $450,000,000.  They  took  their  name  from  the  color 
of  the  paper  on  which  they  were  printed.  They  were 
really  a  loan,  and  in  order  to  make  them  circulate,  to  get 
the  credit  desired,  the  government  made  them  legal  tender 
for  all  debts.  Before  the  first  greenback  or  legal  tender 
act  was  passed,  it  was  objected  that  they  would  not  be 
constitutional,  that  only  gold  and  silver  could  be  made  a 
legal  tender  in  the  payment  of  debts.  This  was  Judge 
Gresham's  view.  Secretary  Chase  doubted  whether  they 
would  be  constitutional,  but  finally,  as  a  war  measure, 
recommended  their  adoption. 

Hugh  McCulloch  succeeded  William  Pitt  Fessenden,  who 
had  followed  Salmon  P.  Chase,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
And  the  country  never  had  an  abler  or  more  experienced 
financier  in  charge  of  the  Treasury  Department  than  Hugh 
McCulloch.  He  was  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  and 
had  been  such  since  the  creation  of  that  office  as  part  of  the 
national  banking  system  up  to  the  time  he  was  made  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury.  Before  the  war,  Mr.  McCulloch  had 
been  president  of  the  Indiana  State  Banking  System,  which 
rode  the  panic  of  1859  with  ease,  paying  gold  on  demand 
when  most  of  the  banks  of  the  country  suspended.  As  a 
young  lawyer,  Walter  Q.  Gresham  early  became  intimate 
with  Hugh  McCulloch.  We  were  neighbors  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
McCulloch  when  my  husband  was  in  Mr.  Arthur's  cabinet. 

As  soon  as  the  army  was  disbanded,  Secretary  McCul- 
loch, with  a  view  to  returning  to  a  specie  basis,  began  con- 
verting the  greenbacks  into  government  bonds;    that  is, 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION     IN     INDIANA      423 

retiring  them  as  was  contemplated  should  be  done  when 
they  were  issued.  In  this,  he  had  my  husband's  most 
cordial  approval.  But  to  this  policy  there  at  once  arose 
violent  opposition  in  Congress,  led  by  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
until  finally  Congress  put  a  stop  to  it  by  the  Act  of  Febru- 
ary 4,  1868,  which  provided  that  the  amount  of  greenbacks 
then  outstanding,  $356,000,000,  should  be  left  in  circulation. 
Mr.  Stevens  said  that  under  the  funding  acts,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  had  more  power  than  a  czar,  and  the  only 
czar  Thaddeus  Stevens  was  ever  in  favor  of  was  himself. 
To  allay  the  uncertainty  that  followed  the  promulgation  of 
Mr.  Stevens's  views  and  the  act  of  February  4,  1868,  Con- 
gress was  forced  to  pass  "The  Public  Credit  Act,"  that  of 
March  18,  1869,  which  declared  that  United  States  notes 
and  all  other  obligations  of  the  government,  except  those 
expressly  payable  in  paper  money,  should  be  paid  in  coin. 

The  State  courts,  to  escape  the  charge  of  disloyalty, 
had  uniformly  during  the  war  upheld  the  constitutionality 
of  the  greenback  legislation.  Finally  a  case  presenting  the 
question  reached  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
It  involved  a  contract  made  before  the  war,  for  the  pay- 
ment of  money,  at  a  time  when  it  was  admitted  that  nothing 
but,  gold  and  silver  coin  was  legal  tender.  The  day  of  pay- 
ment as  specified  in  the  contract,  February  20,  1862,  was 
before  the  first  legal  tender  act  went  into  effect.  *  The  judg- 
ment of  the  Court  was  adverse  to  the  constitutionality  of 
the  act.  The  opinion,  which  was  delivered  by  Chief  Justice 
Chase,  January  29,  1870,  was  concurred  in  by  Justices 
Nelson,  Clifford,  Field,  and  Greer;  Justices  Miller,  Swain, 
and  "Davis  dissented. 

Then  in  a  few  days,  under  an  Act  of  Congress  which  had 
taken  effect  the  first  Monday  in  December,  1869,  increasing 
the  membership  of  the  court  to  nine,  Justice  Greer  retired, 
and  two  new  members  were  appointed,  Justices  Bradley 
and  Strong. 

Justice  Strong  was  taken  from  the  Supreme  Court  of 


424       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Pennsylvania,  where,  over  a  strong  dissent,  he  had  written 
an  opinion  upholding  the  constitutionality  of  the  legal  ten- 
der acts.  Justice  Bradley  had  the  indorsement  of  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  and  was  close,  it  was  said,  to  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  Company,  which  just  then  did  not  want  to  pay 
gold  and  silver  to  its  employees  and  bondholders. 

Before  the  change  in  the  personnel  of  the  court,  the 
Attorney-General  filed  a  petition  for  a  rehearing  and 
made  an  application  for  a  re-argument.  The  question, 
What  would  be  the  effect  of  a  contract  for  the  payment  of 
money  after  the  Act  went  into  effect?  was  not  the  question 
before  the  court  in  the  case  decided  by  the  Chief  Justice. 
After  the  re-argument,  the  court  as  enlarged,  by  a  vote  of 
five  to  four,  overruled  the  decision  of  Chief  Justice  Chase. 
Justices  Nelson,  Clifford,  and  Field  stayed  with  the  Chief 
Justice.  Justices  Bradley  and  Strong,  the  two  new  mem- 
bers, with  Miller,  Swain,  and  Davis,  who  had  dissented 
from  the  former  judgment  of  the  court,  constituted  the  five. 
They  decided  that  the  legal  tender  feature  of  the  greenbacks 
was  constitutional  and  applied  to  all  contracts,  whether 
made  before  or  after  the  passage  of  the  acts  for  the  payment 
of  lawful  money,  except  those  expressly  payable  in  coin. 
The  opinion  of  the  court,  however,  as  written  by  Justice 
Strong,  was  put  on  the  distinct  ground  that  the  act  was 
constitutional  because  it  was  a  war  measure.  Walter  Q. 
Gresham,  as  a  judge,  agreed  with  Chief  Justice  Chase, 
who  adhered  to  his  views  in  a  dissenting  opinion.  I  often 
heard  him  discussing  the  decision  of  these  cases  with  Judge 
David  Davis  and  also  Judge  Drummond.  It  was  said  in 
the  public  prints  of  that  day  that  the  membership  of  the 
court  had  been  changed  for  the  express  purpose  of  bringing 
about  the  change  in  decision.  However  this  may  be,  it  is 
clear  that  judicial  questions  in  their  essence  are  in  a  large 
degree  social,  economic,  and  political. 

The  legal  tender  decisions  entered  into  Michael  C. 
Kerr's  campaign  for  Congress  in  1874.     The  panic  of  1873 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION     IN     INDIANA      425 

had  brought  forward  the  inflationists  of  both  parties. 
They  claimed  the  sanction  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The 
Congress  that  met  in  December,  1873,  was  Republican  by 
a  good  majority  but  not  by  two- thirds.  Under  the  leader- 
ship of  Senator  Oliver  P.  Morton,  the  Inflation  Bill,  as  it 
was  called,  was  passed.  It  increased  the  volume  of  green- 
backs from  $356,000,000  to  $400,000,000,  but  on  April  22, 
1874,  it  met  with  a  veto  at  the  hands  of  President  Grant. 
Senator  Morton  always  claimed,  as  he  understood  General 
Grant's  position  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  that  the 
Inflation  Bill  would  meet  with  presidential  approval.  In 
helping  revolutionize  the  Supreme  Court,  General  Grant 
did  not  indicate  hostility  to  the  greenbacks,  but  in  his  veto 
message,  he  took  the  ground  that  he  was  keeping  his  own 
and  his  party's  faith.  Some  credited  the  veto  to  Roscoe 
Conkling,  who  had  voted  against  the  bill  and  had  opposed 
the  original  issue  of  greenbacks. 

Mr.  Kerr,  as  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  the  State  at 
large  in  1872,  had  been  defeated  with  his  party.  In  his 
stead  in  our  district  our  old  friend  Simeon  K.  Wolf,  had 
been  elected.  Mr.  Wolf  was  an  inflationist  and  a  green - 
backer  and  wrote  letters  from  Washington  to  our  home 
papers.  He  declared  that  General  Grant  was  all  right  on 
the  money  question  until  the  representatives  of  Wall  Street 
and  the  bondholders  arrived  and  induced  him  to  send  in 
the  veto.  He  predicted  that  when  the  people  were  heard 
from,  there  would  be  different  laws  from  those  we  then  had 
on  the  currency  question. 

Meantime  Mr.  Kerr  had  been  practising  law  in  New 
Albany  and  reconstructing  his  political  fences  through  our 
congressional  district.  My  husband  saw  much  of  his  old 
opponent  for  Congress.  During  this  period  Judge  David 
Davis  came  to  New  Albany  and  held  court.  While  our 
guest  it  happened  General  Bristow1  came  to  see  him,  and 
the  same  afternoon  and  at  the  same  time  Mr.  Kerr  called. 
The  only  public  question  they  discussed  was  the  money 

1  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


J 


426        LIFE     OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM      • 

question.  On  it,  I  remember,  Bristow  said  Morton  had 
ruined  the  chances  of  the  Republicans  in  Indiana.  I  heard 
the  financial  question  much  discussed  while  I  was  at  Indi- 
anapolis on  many  visits  during  the  winter  of  1873-4,  where 
I  saw  a  good  deal  of  Joseph  E.  MacDonald,  who  was  a  sound 
money  man.  One  cold  morning  that  winter  Mr.  MacDonald 
came  to  our  house  in  New  Albany  for  breakfast.  He  was 
then  helping  Mr.  Kerr  organize  his  district.  My  husband 
asked  him  whether  he  or  Governor  Hendricks  would  lead 
the  Indiana  Democracy  on  the  money  question.  Mr. 
MacDonald  said  he  would.  My  husband  said  he  doubted 
it,  and  to  help  out  he  made  a  trip  to  Harrison  County 
and  to  other  points  to  see  some  of  his  former  Democratic 
clients  in  Mr.  Kerr's  interest.  Some  of  these  former  clients 
had  voted  for  him  as  against  Mr.  Kerr.  Others  who  de- 
clared they  would  do  anything  for  my  husband  but  vote 
for  him  on  the  radical  ticket,  said:  ''Judge,  we  will  give 
you  your  choice  between  Democrats."  One  big,  strapping 
Democrat,  who  controlled  a  large  number  of  votes,  came 
to  our  house  and  waited  several  hours,  as  my  husband  was 
returning  from  Indianapolis,  only  to  say  to  him:  "Judge, 
if  you  think  Mike  Kerr  is  a  better  man  than  Sim  Wolf,  we 
will  go  for  Mike."  One  man  who  had  induced  his  father, 
his  sons,  and  a  number  of  his  neighbors  to  vote  for  my 
husband,  but  who  would  not  vote  that  way  himself,  declar- 
ing he  never  had  and  never  would  scratch  a  Democratic 
ticket,  was,  with  all  his  following,  easily  turned  to  Mr. 
Kerr's  support.  Both  before  the  convention  and  at  the 
polls  Walter  Q.  Gresham  helped  Mr.  Kerr  that  year.  Mr. 
Kerr  himself  said  he  was  most  of  all  aided  by  Mr.  Gresham's 
moral  support,  counsel,  and  advice. 

The  plan  of  Mr.  Kerr  and  Mr.  MacDonald  was  to  lead 
the  Democratic  State  Convention  to, adopt  a  sound  money 
platform  by  anticipating  its  meeting  with  their  conven- 
tion July  1.  Accordingly,  on  that  day  the  Democrats  of 
the    Third    Congressional    District   met    at    Seymour   and 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION     IN     INDIANA      427 

unanimously  nominated  Mr.  Kerr  on  a  short,  simple  plat- 
form, declaring  for  sound  money  and  a  tariff  for  revenue 
only,  after  accepting  the  war  amendents  to  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

In  his  speech  accepting  the  nomination  on  his  own  plat- 
form, Mr.  Kerr  began  by  saying: 

On  the  great  subjects  of  currency  and   taxation   there  are 
to-day  in  our  country  and  in  the  ranks  of  all  political  parties,  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  and  in  the  press,  the  most  remarkable 
absence  of  unity  and  harmony  of  opinion  and  the  most  embarrass-" 
ing  diversity  of  plans,  policies,  sentiments,  and  fancies. 

Theii  after  dismissing  all  partisan  questions  and  accept- 
ing the  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  he  said: 

There  never  was  and  never  can  be  a  good  national  currency 
that  does  not  rest  upon  the  true  foundation  of  intrinsic  value  of 
money  whose  value  is  fixed  by  the  labor  it  costs  to  produce  it ; 
of  money  created  under  the  injunction  ' '  that  in  the  sweat  of  thy 
face  shalt  thou  eat  bread."  Full  of  these  convictions,  wise  in  the 
then  past  experiences  of  the  world,  and  faithful  to  duty,  our 
forefathers  imbedded  these  principles  in  our  Constitution  and 
cherished  the  fond  hope  that  they  had  hereby  forever  secured 
their  posterity  against  the  evils  of  irredeemable  paper  currency. 
They  declared  in  the  Constitution  that  "no  State  shall  make 
anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts." 
That  is  our  constitutional  basis,  and  it  precisely  coincides  with 
the  conclusions  of  universal  experience  and  of  science,  of  sound 
morality  and  national  law.  It  is  the  fixed  and  irreversible  judg- 
ment of  mankind  that  the  currency  of  commerce  shall  be  gold 
and  silver. 

But  these  sound  sentiments  were  without  effect  on  the 
deliberations  of  the  Democratic  State  Convention  which 
met  at  Indianapolis  July  14.  ,  It  was  under  the  control  of 
Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  then  Governor  of  Indiana,  and  Dan- 
iel W.  Voorhees.  They  adopted  a  noncommittal  platform 
qn  the  tariff,  but  on  the  inflation  question  they  out-inflated 
the  .  inflationists ;    they  even  .  demanded  the  repeal  of  the 


i  1 


428        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

"Public  Credit  Act"  of  1869,  which  provided  that  the 
government  bonds  should  be  paid  in  coin. 

Following  the  lead  of  their  State  platform,  a  portion  of 
the  Democrats  put  up  old  General  John  T\  Cravens  as  a 
candidate  against  Mr.  Kerr  on  an  inflation  platform.  The 
Republicans,  as  an  organization,  and  all  the  postmasters 
in  the  district  endorsed  him,  and  then  he  was  called  an 
"Independent." 

The  Honorable  Simeon  K.  Wolf  came  home  and  took  the 
stump  for  General  Cravens.  Some  of  the  things  Mr.  Wolf 
said  may  not  be  without  interest  now.  He  complained 
that  while  he  was  at  Washington  working  against  the  con- 
traction of  the  currency  —  voting  for  more  money  —  a  snap 
convention  was  held  behind  his  back  at  Seymour.  "It 
was  understood  at  Washington  that  General  Grant  would 
sign  the  bill  which  passed  Congress  on  the  currency  ques- 
tion—  until  the  Wall  Street  delegation  reached  there.  If 
there  is  such  a  sap-head  in  Washington  County  as  believes 
the  Wall  Street  men  are  not  working  for  themselves  and 
against  the  people,  then  he  should  vote  for  the  Seymour 
candidate.  The  Democratic,  Republican,  and  Farmers' 
State  Conventions  are  all  in  favor  of  more  money.  Also 
all  others,  except  one  in  Illinois  and  one  in  Seymour.  I  will 
do  almost  anything  for  harmony,  but  I  must  preserve  my 
principles  before  that.  The  Indianapolis  and  Seymour 
platforms  conflict.  Read  me  out  of  the  party  if  I  don't 
go  Seymour,  and  I'll  read  you  out  if  you  don't  go  Indian- 
apolis." 

Both  Governor  Hendricks  and  Daniel  W.  Voorhees  were 
sticking  to  the  Indianapolis  platform,  and  the  embarrass- 
ment of  Mr.  Kerr  was  great  when  Henry  Watterson,  in  an 
editorial  in  the  Louisville  Courier -Journal,  "dropped  a 
brick"  on  the  Governor's  head: 

Take  Indiana,  for  example.  The  last  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention was  an  offense  to  decency  and  intelligence.  The  only 
brave  and  pure  man  of  influence  in  it  was  Mr.  Kerr,  and  he  was  not 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION     IN     INDIANA      429 

able  to  rally  enough  men  like  himself  to  do  any  good.  Nothing 
could  more  conclusively  show  what  a  farce  it  is  to  talk  of  Hendricks 
for  the  White  House.  It  was  Dan  Voorhees'  work  certainly;  for 
he  wants  to  be  the  only  Daniel  in  the  lion's  den,  and  is  always 
able  to  raise  the  devil  among  the  sheep  and  the  doves  represented 
and  led  by  the  sweet-faced  kid  in  the  executive  mansion  at  Indi- 
anapolis. 

This  made  a  great  scurrying  among  the  Democrats  on 
our  side  of  the  river.  Governor  Hendricks  was  a  Presi- 
dential candidate.  L.  G.  Mathews,  one  of  the  New  Albany 
neighbors  and  a  friend  of  Mr.  Kerr,  was  then  temporarily 
in  charge  of  the  Indianapolis  Sentinel.  He  mildly  depre- 
cated the  attacks  on  the  Indiana  executive,  just  enough  to 
bring  to  Mr.  Hendricks'  attention  and  the  attention  of 
the  people  what  Watterson  had  said.  Later  on  Governor 
Hendricks  repudiated  the  inflation  plank  of  his  platform 
and  acquiesced  in  responsibility  for  its  being  put  on  Voor- 
hees. Not  only  that,  but  Governor  Hendricks  went  into 
the  third  district  and  supported  Mr.  Kerr,  and  even  entered 
into  a  joint  discussion  with  General  Cravens. 

But  not  so  with  Daniel  W.  Voorhees,  who  scented  the 
deal  which  was  revealed  as  soon  as  the  polls  closed.  He 
struck  immediately  at  Messrs.  Watterson  and  Hendricks 
by  saying  that  he  was  tempted  by  no  "  glittering  purse  in 
the  shape  of  an  office,"  and  had  nothing  to  fear  or  expect 
from  the  favor  or  enmity  of  the  press,  east  or  west,  north 
or  south. 

Until  Governor  Hendricks  switched,  Daniel  Webster 
Voorhees  was  slated  for  United  States  Senator.  Mr.  Voor- 
hees' speeches  were  printed  in  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer 
and  sent  broadcast  throughout  the  district  as  a  campaign 
document  against  Mr.  Kerr;  and  they  almost  defeated  him, 
as  well  as  greatly  embarrassing  Governor  Hendricks.  But 
most  important  of  all,  the  following  extracts  from  these 
speeches  indicate  the  difficulty  there  was  in  resuming 
'specie   payments." 


430       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

It  is  difficult  to  consider  with  patience  much  of  the  senseless 
clamour  we  now  hear  on  the  subject  of  specie  payments.  Its 
advocates  scarcely  condescend  to  point  out  any  method  by  which 
it  is  to  be  done.  They  are  not  so  much  to  be  blamed  for  this, 
however,  if  a  few  facts  are  taken  into  consideration.  This  govern- 
ment is  possessed  of  not  more  than  $150,000,000  of  gold,  with 
no  prospect  of  greatly  increasing  that  amount  at  an  early  day. 
Our  paper  circulation  of  greenbacks  and  bank  notes  amounts  to 
about  $1,173,000,000. 

After  showing  that  this  would  enable  the  government  to 
pay  only  two  cents  on  the  dollar,  he  called  attention  to  what 
he  said  was  the  only  plan  that  met  the  issue,  that  of  the 
Chicago  Times.  "  Destroy  and  burn  the  money  now  in 
circulation  in  the  hands  of  the  people  until  there  is  no  more 
of  it  than  there  is  gold  to  redeem  it.  But  this  would  be 
atrocious.  The  fact  is,"  he  concluded,  "specie  payments 
are  impossible." 

About  "The  Public  Credit  Act"  Mr.  Voorhees  said: 

When  beaten,  however,  on  every  proposition  of  law  and  on 
every  point  of  history  relating  to  the  law  on  which  the  5-20 
bonds  were  issued  and  sold,  the  advocates  of  the  money  power, 
the  apologists  for  plunder,  always  fall  back  on  that  gigantic 
fraud  known  as  the  Act  of  March  18,  1869.  Fourteen  days  after 
the  inauguration  of  General  Grant,  a  well-defined,  plainly  writ- 
ten, carefully  constructed,  and  universally  admitted  law  of  the 
contract  between  the  people  of  the  United  States  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  bondholding  public  creditors  on  the  other,  was 
sought  to  be  set  aside  and  another  contract  enacted  in  its  place 
whereby  the  unlawful  gain  of  the  bondholders  and  the  conse- 
quent plunder  of  the  taxpayers  would  amount  to  at  least  $500,- 
000,000.  Such  a  piece  of  legislative  villainy  as  this  has  no  equal 
in  history. 

Mr.  Voorhees  then  quoted  Senator  Morton's  reason  for 
voting  against  the  Act  of  March  18,  1869,  namely: 

That  it  would  be  foul  injustice  to  the  government  and  people 
of  the  United  States,  after  we  sold  these  bonds  on  an  average  of 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION     IN     INDIANA      431 

not  more  than  60  cents  on  the  dollar,  now  to  propose  to  make  a 
new  contract  for  the  benefit  of  the  bondholders. 

As  to  the  greenbacks,  Mr.  Voorhees  said: 

Our  circulating  coin  has  disappeared,  paper  money  has  taken 
its  place,  sustained  as  a  valuable  medium  of  commerce  and  trade 
not  on  a  specie  basis  at  all,  but  by  a  confidence  in  the  real  and 
constantly  increasing  wealth  of  the  country,  the  exchangeable 
value  of  the  annual  produce  of  its  lands  and  labor.  And  now 
let  us  see  what  this  currency,  resting  on  such  a  basis,  has  done 
for  the  American  people  in  the  past.  With  legal  tender  notes, 
the  debt  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  amounting  to  upwards  of 
$10,000,000,  was  paid.  Much  of  this  debt,  too,  was  contracted 
before  the  war,  on  a  gold  basis.  The  debts  of  nearly  all  the 
States  were  paid  in  the  same  way.  Greenbacks  heretofore  were 
good  enough  for  State  creditors.  Are  they  not  good  enough 
for  national  creditors?  It  was  not  repudiation  then.  Why 
should  it  be  called  repudiation  now?  All  private  debts  have 
been  paid  in  this  currency  for  more  than  twelve  years  past, 
whether  such  debts  were  contracted  when  gold  and  silver  were 
only  legal  tender,  or  afterwards.  In  this  way,  payments  have 
been  made  amounting  to  more  than  five  times  our  national  debt. 
It  seems  the  people  are  not  yet  aware  that  this  currency  was 
mere  "shinplaster  scrip,"  such  as  is  issued  by  a  wildcat  bank 
in  the  back  woods.  Do  they  think  so  now?  Greenbacks  were 
good  enough  to  pay  the  soldier  for  his  blood  and  his  life  during 
the  war,  and  that  too  when  they  were  not  worth  more  than  half 
as  much  as  they  are  now. 

There  was  a  time,  however,  strange  as  it  may  now  seem,  when 
greenbacks  were  esteemed  good  enough  for  the  bondholders. 
But  it  was  when  he  paid  them  out  in  the  purchase  of  bonds  for 
which  he  now  demands  gold.  They  paid  for  every  5-20  bond 
that  was1  ever  in  existence.  When  they  were  only  worth  50  cents 
on' the  dollar  they  paid  for  these  bonds,  dollar  for  dollar.  One 
thousand  dollars  in  greenbacks,  worth  $500  in  gold,  bought  a 
thousand;  dollar  bond  which  is  now  claimed  shall  be  paid  in  gold 
at  its  face,  i  When  legal  tender  notes  were  rendering  their  welcome 
service  to  the  capitalist  they  were  not  ' '  shinplasters  " ;  now  they 
are.  ',' unredeemable  rag  currency."     They  were  then  recognized 


432        LIFE    OF     WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

as  the  money  by  which  the  Union  was  preserved,  by  which  our 
credit  was  upheld  at  home  and  abroad,  by  which  our  country 
grew  and  developed  its  resources  even  amidst  a  tremendous  war, 
by  which  the  Pacific  railroads  were  built  during  the  period  of 
civic  strife,  and  by  which  a  commercial  prosperity  prevailed 
which  we  have  never  had  since.  Then  it  was  held  to  be  disloyal 
to  oppose  them  as  legal  tenders. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  circulation  of  the  Voorhees 
speeches,  the  charge  was  made  that  Mr.  Kerr  was  a  govern- 
ment bondholder  —  that  he  even  held  some  of  the  5-20's 
that  Mr.  Voorhees  was  so  loudly  declaiming  against.  While 
this  was  not  true  and  was  finally  denied,  it  did  not  injure 
Mr.  Kerr  with  the  holders  of  government  bonds,  and  there 
were  quite  a  number  of  them  throughout  the  district,  but 
it  did  make  many  of  the  soldier  element  vote  for  General 
Cravens. 

Mr.  Kerr's  was  an  educational  campaign.  The  labor  he 
went  through,  speaking  twice  daily,  traveling  continuously, 
undermined  his  health  and  ultimately  led  to  his  death. 
Although  there  was  but  little  allusion  to  the  tariff  in  the 
campaign  speeches,  infant  industries,  plate  glass  and  rolling 
mill  interests  of  the  district  supported  General  Cravens. 
Democratic  defection  from  Mr.  Kerr  was  large,  and  so  was 
the  defection  of  the  Republicans  from  General  Cravens. 
But  for  Republican  votes  Mr.  Kerr  would  have  been  hope- 
lessly defeated.  The  Democratic  State  ticket  had  a  major- 
ity of  4,800  in  the  district,  while  Mr.  Kerr's  was  but  1,000. 
In  the  State  the  Democrats  were  in  the  majority  by  10,000, 
and  also  in  the  legislature.  In  the  nation  at  large,  the 
Democrats  elected  for  the  first  time  since  1858  a  majority 
of  the  members  of  the  Lower  House  of  Congress.  The 
announcement  came  immediately  after  the  election  that 
when  the  legislature  met  it  would  elect,  as  it  did,  Jos- 
eph E.  MacDonald  as  United  States  senator  instead  of 
Mr.  Voorhees. 

At  a  meeting  held  at   Nashville  in  the  last  days  of 


GREENBACK     CONTENTION     IN     INDIANA      433 

November,  1874,  to  celebrate  the  Democratic  victory  of 
that  year,  Mr.  Kerr  was  the  principal  speaker.  "Marse 
Henry"  got  up  the  meeting  and  there  revealed  Mr.  Kerr 
as  his  candidate  for  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. At  the  assembling  of  Congress  in  December,  1875, 
Mr.  Kerr  was  elected  speaker  only  to  survive  until  July  16, 
1876.  In  acknowledging  at  the  Nashville  meeting  the  aid 
he  had  received  from  Republican  sources,  Mr.  Kerr  said  : 

But  it  is  not  in  Massachusetts  alone  that  we  have  had  the 
aid  of  Liberal  and  Republican  votes  to  achieve  recent  triumphs 
over  wrong,  radicalism,  and  corruption.  To  a  greater  or  less 
extent  we  have  had  the  like  aid  in  all  parts  of  the  country-  It 
is  fit  and  just  that  we  should  recognize  this  fact,  and  so  use  the 
power  conferred  on  us  by  these  victories  as  to  deserve  again  the 
confidence  and  cooperation  of  such  good  and  worthy  citizens. 

Among  the  uninvited  speakers  at  this  Nashville  meeting 
were  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  and  Daniel  W.  Voorhees.  It 
was  made  plain  by  this  meeting  that  the  real  leaders  of  the 
Democracy  were  getting  away  from  the  Bourbonism  that 
led  to  the  war,  and  as  a  means  to  that  end  were  declaring 
for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  and  the  payment  of 
all  the  obligations  of  the  government  in  coin.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  before  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  was  a  sound 
money  party.  Vagaries  may  prevail  for  a  time,  but  on  the 
question  of  economics  and  finances  the  people  are  sound 
and  cannot  long  be  misled. 

The  wisdom  and  force  of  the  new  order  of  the  Democracy 
were  very  soon  manifest.  The  Republican  organization  had 
to  quit  dallying  with  the  money  question. 

January  14,  1875,  Congress,  which  was  still  Republican, 
passed  the  Act  for  the  Resumption  of  Specie  Payments ;  that 
is,  that  on  and  after  January  1,  1879,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  should  redeem  the  notes  of  the  United  States  in 
coin,  and  that  in  the  meantime,  to  get  the  coin  with  which 
to  do  so,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  authorized  to 
sell  bonds. 


434       LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN    GRESHAM 

Could  the  Northern  Democrats  and  the  Southern  leaders 
in  1866  and  1868  have  taken  the  position  they  did  in  1874, 
we  would  have  escaped  many  of  the  blights  of  Reconstruc- 
tion. The  entire  fault  must  not  rest  on  Thaddeus  Stevens 
and  Charles  Sumner.  When  the  final  balance  is  struck, 
the  chief  blame  will  rest  on  the  Hendrickses,  the  Pendletons, 
and  the  Seymours.  The  refusal  on  their  part  in  the  first 
instance  to  accord,  if  not  demand,  that  protection  •  in  the 
law  to  the  former  slave  that  natural  justice  dictated,  was 
utterly  inexcusable.  Resistance  to  the  adoption  of  the 
13  th  and  14th  Amendments  is  what  clothed  Stevens  and 
Sumner  for  a  time  with  almost  unlimited  power  to  pass  the 
15th  or  Suffrage  Amendment.  All  the  more  credit  then  is 
due  to  the  Southern  men ;  they  were  the  first  to  see  the 
mistake  and  come  forward  to  correct  it.  The  leaders  in 
this  line  were  Henry  Watterson  of  Kentucky  and  John  M. 
Allen  of  Tupelo,  Mississippi.  In  his  teens  when  the  Con- 
federate line  broke  at  Nashville  that  cold  December  morning 
in  1864,  "Private  John"  was  still  a  young  man  when,  as 
one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Democratic  Convention  of  1872, 
he  insisted  on  nominating  Horace  Greeley  over  men  like 
Thomas  A.  Hendricks. 

The  relations  of  Watterson,  Hendricks,  and  Voorhees 
never  became  cordial.  At  that  time  I  did  not  know  Mr. 
Watterson  personally,  but  later  on  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  know  him  well.  It  was  subsequent  to  this  that  I  learned 
also  to  know  Mr.  Voorhees.  He  honestly  believed  in  the 
biblical  saying  that  it  was  ' '  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  My  husband  and  Mr.  Voorhees 
were  friends  then,  and  afterwards  became  very  intimate 
personally  and  politically.  During  the  Cleveland  admin- 
istration I  came  to  know  Mr.  Voorhees  well.  At  that  time 
he  told  me  that  Governor  Hendricks  had  abandoned  his 
principles  in  1874  and  yet  failed  to  gain  the  favor;  of  the 
East  and    of    the  strong  men  of   the  South   like  "Henry 


GREENBACK    CONTENTION    IN    INDIANA      435 

Watterson.  In  1876  "Marse  Henry  and  his  gang"  were  for 
Samuel  J.  Tilden's  nomination,  and  Daniel  W.  Voorhees 
was  easily  reconciled  to  Governor  Hendricks  being  assigned 
to  second  place. 

The  Resumption  Act  of  1875,  the  Sherman  Act  of  1890,   / 
and  Daniel  W.  Voorhees  as  chairman  of  the  Finance  Com-  f    \j  \j  >/ 
mittee  of  the  United  States  Senate,  were  the  great  factors  I 
of  the  panic  of  1893.  \) 

I  can  not  leave  the  greenbacks  without  telling  about  the 
discussion  which  occurred  at  a  Cabinet  dinner  in  March, 
1884,  while  my  husband  was  Postmaster-General.  The 
anomaly  in  our  monetary  system  was  the  Legal  Tender  Act 
of  1878,  which  provided  that  after  greenbacks,  with  their 
legal  tender  feature,  had  been  reduced  under  the  act  for  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments,  they  should  be  reissued  im- 
mediately. In  other  words,  the  government  was  required 
to  keep  up  the  endless  chain  of  taking  up  in  coin  and  then 
immediately  reissuing  its  paper  obligations.  A  New  York 
broker  challenged  the  constitutionality  of  this  act  when  a 
citizen  of  Pennsylvania  offered  to  pay  with  greenbacks 
bonds  bought  for  his  account.  The  broker  said  he  must 
have  gold.  The  case  went  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  where  its  constitutionality  was  upheld.  The 
Wednesday  following  the  announcement  of  the  decision  we 
had  our  dinner  party  for  the  President. 

There  were  present  President  Arthur,  Justice  Gray,  who 
had  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  court;  Justice  Blatchford; 
Attorney- General  Brewster;  Robert  R.  Hitt,  then  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Illinois;  William  E.  Chandler,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy;  George  Bancroft,  the  historian;  Belden 
Noble,  and  several  others.  I  was  the  only  woman  present, 
and  I  had  made  special  effort  to  have  a  good  dinner.  I 
had  excellent  terrapin,  good  wine,  and  old  Virginia  ham,  of 
which  Mr.  Arthur  was  especially  fond.  They  all  seemed, 
as  the  Attorney- General  said  he  was,  hungry  and  thirsty. 
As  they  forgot  their  hunger  and  fatigue,   the  discussion 


436        LIFE    OF    WALTER    QUINTIN     GRESHAM 

turned  to  Justice  Gray's  legal  tender  decision.  The  gov- 
ernment was  not  a  party  to  the  litigation,  as  it  had  been 
in  the  former  legal  tender  cases.  I  remember  especially 
that  Mr.  Arthur,  who  had  appointed  both  Justice  Gray  and 
Justice  Blatchford,  was  pointed  in  his  criticism  of  the  valid- 
ity of  the  decision.  There  was  much  raillery,  which  the 
Justice  received  good-humoredly  but  with  manifest  embar- 
rassment and  surprise.  One  thing  that  impressed  me  was 
that  Justice  Gray  did  not  maintain  his  position  as  readily 
as  I  supposed  a  man  of  his  attainments  and  experience 
would  do  in  a  discussion  of  that  kind.  I  remember  he  said 
that  Chief  Justice  Chase  took  a  different  view  of  the  ques- 
tion when  he  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  that  the  pro- 
hibition against  the  States  making  anything  but  gold  and 
silver  legal  tender  did  not  apply  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  But  this  did  not  meet  with  the  objection 
of  Mr.  Chandler  that  the  notes  were  to  be  re-issued  after 
being  retired  in  time  of  peace  when  they  were  issued  con- 
fessedly and  only  as  a  war  measure.  ''The  monarchs  of 
Europe  had  possessed  from  time  immemorial  the  right  to 
make  paper  money  a  legal  tender,"  said  the  justice,  "to 
debase  the  coin  of  the  realm."  The  answer  was  that  the 
kings  of  Europe  had  done  many  things  that  were  not  right, 
one  of  which  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  thought  they 
had  effectually  guarded  against  —  the  debasing  of  the  cir- 
culating medium.  More  powerful  than  the  government 
that  emanated  from  a  single  man  or  king,  the  government 
of  the  people  could  exercise  only  rightful  and  legitimate 
powers.  My  husband,  who  was  the  host,  could  not  be  as 
free  as  his  guests  in  criticizing  the  Justice,  but  he  mentioned 
the  fact  that  Senator  Jones  had  stated  in  the  argument  on 
the  Inflation  Bill,  that  if  no  greenbacks  had  been  issued  the 
war  would  have  cost  a  billion  and  a  half  less  money  than 
it  did. 


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